India settles for bronze at World Junior Badminton Championships | Badminton News – The Times of India

It was a dream start for India in the semi-finals of the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships in Guwahati on Friday. The junior shuttlers – first the doubles of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu, followed by the performance of an under-par Unnati Hooda – dominated Court 1 of the National Center of Excellence at the start of the opening match against Indonesia.Go beyond the border with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!But Mohammaad Zaki Ubaidillah, the world’s No. 1 junior boys’ singles player, turned things around by beating Rounak Chouhan and led his team in thwarting the hosts’ ambitions in a way they could not recover from.Ultimately, India had to settle for bronze after a 35-45, 21-45 defeat as Indonesia set up a third straight clash with top seed China.

“Today the Indonesian team was better than us in all aspects,” India doubles coach Ivan Sozonov told TOI from Guwahati.The Russian couldn’t have been more right. India started strongly and were level for much of the first set and the combination of mixed doubles Lalramsanga C and Vishakha Toppo raised hopes of a fightback as they drew for the first time at 28-28.But the Indonesian pair of Ikhsan Pramudya and Rinjani Nastine regained the initiative and Nastine teamed up with Riska Anggraini to beat Reshika U and Vennala K to wrap up the set 45-35.“If we had gone into the last doubles with a few points lead in the first doubles, we could have put some pressure on them. But that didn’t happen,” Sozonov added.India’s level dropped further in the second set. The Indonesians adjusted their opening pair for the men’s doubles and the change put Indonesia at 9-2.From then on it was one-way traffic as Hooda, who was expected to give India the lead, failed to get going against Thalita Wiryawan and Ubaidillah put the Indonesians further ahead in the men’s singles.India’s slim hopes of recovery were further dashed in the mixed doubles, with Pramudya-Nastine beating Lalramsanga-Toppo. The Indians swapped the women’s doubles final, bringing in Aanya Bisht and Angel Punera, but it made little difference as Nastine and Anggraini comfortably took their team to the final with a score of 45-21.Meanwhile, China held off a spirited attack from Japan, pushing through 45-42 at the end of an entertaining third set to win 2-1.The Indians will now shift focus to the individual championship starting Monday.