BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships: Shuttlers Meiraba Luwang, Tanisha Crasto, Ishaan Bhatnagar guide India to easy win over USA

Kazan: Shuttlers Meiraba Luwang and Tanisha Crasto guided India to a comfortable 4-1 win over USA in their opening Group E encounter at the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships on Monday.

Goa girl Crasto was the star performer for India, winning her girls’ doubles as well as mixed doubles matches. Playing alongside Chattisgarh’s Ishaan Bhatnagar, the two delivered the first point to India by beating Jacob Zhang and Jessica Wang of the USA 22-20, 21-9.

India’s junior boys’ singles shuttler, Luwang was the next to take the court. The junior world no 10 stamped his authority over the 520th ranked Alexander Zheng with an easy 21-9, 21-11 win in a match that lasted 26 minutes.

Luwang has been in scintillating form this year, having triumphed at the Russian Junior White Nights, besides finishing runner-up at the India Junior International. After winning the Dubai Junior International Series earlier this month, Gujarat girl Tasnim Mir registered a fighting 21-19, 25-23 win over junior world no 75 Natalie Chi to give India a 3-0 lead.

India, however, lost the fourth rubber when the boys’ doubles combination of Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Iman Sonowal went down 23-25, 19-21 to William Yu and Joshua Yuan. In-form pair of Aditi Bhatt and Crasto then played the last match of the tie against Katelin Ngo and Esther Shi.

The Indians, who secured back-to-back wins in the two selection tournaments, were made to work hard by the American pair before they pulled off a 21-16, 15-21, 21-7 win in 46 minutes. Besides India and USA, the other teams in Group E are Australia, Armenia and Japan.

India lost to South Korea in the quarter-finals in the last edition of the tournament in 2018.