BWF World Junior Championships 2018: Gayatri Gopichand makes a winning start

Pullela Gopichand’s 15-year-old daughter, Gayatri Gopichand made a winning start to her campaign as the BWF World Junior Championships 2018 got underway in Markham, Canada on Monday. Gayatri needed just 21 minutes to dispatch Adelina Quinones of Mexico 21-10, 21-9 to set up a second round meeting with China’s Han Qianxi.

While Gopichand progressed, Malvika Bansod did not enjoy the same good fortunes for she went down 20-22, 24-26 to Saloni Samirbhai Mehta of Hong Kong. Eighth seed Purva Barve will begin her challenge on Tuesday against Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong after receiving a first round bye.

George, Rajawat, Mishra advance

In the men’s singles U-19 section, Priyanshu Rajawat beat Denis Koppen 21-18, 21-17 while Alap Mishra outclassed Yann Orteu 21-14, 21-8.

Kiran George was a winner on Day 1 as well, notching up a 21-17, 21-12 win over Canada’s Kevin Wang.

India was also in contention in mixed doubles on the first day of the tournament. Out of the four pairs, only one managed to advance to the second round on a disappointing day for the contingent.

Saipratheek K Krishnaprasad and Ashwini Bhat K were the only ones to win as they beat Gerardo Saavedra and Fatima Rio 21-16, 21-4.

Navaneeth Bokka and Sahithi Bandi fought valiantly only to end up losing the match 8-21, 21-18, 16-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Shiau Cheng and Wang Yu Qiao. Akshan Shetty and Rashi Lambe lost to Kevin Wang and Wendy Zhang 13-21, 14-21 while Srikrishna Sai Kumar Podile and Srishti Jupudi bowed out with a 12-21, 9-21 loss to the German combine of Lukas Resch and Emma Moszczynski.

Asian junior champion Lakshya Sen is India’s biggest medal hope at this prestigious tournament. The 17-year-old, seeded fourth at this event, will start his quest for a maiden gold medal on Tuesday against Mexico’s Armando Gaitan.