A day after ensuring she would leave the BWF World Junior Championships at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati with a medal, Tanvi Sharma made certain that that would at least be a silver. In the semi-final on Saturday, she beat China’s Liu Si Ya 15-11, 15-9 to seal her spot in the gold medal match.Before Tanvi, only two Indians – Aparna Popat (1996) and Saina Nehwal (2006, 2008) – had reached the women’s singles finals of the tournament. Popat had won a silver while Nehwal had won silver (2006) and gold (2008) during their runs to the title clash.Overall, Tanvi is the fifth Indian to reach the final of the BWF World Junior Championships after Popat (1996), Nehwal (2006, 2008), Siril Verma (2015) and Sankar Muthuswamy (2002).Tanvi will face off with Thailand’s Anyapat Phichitpreechasak who got the better of compatriot Yataweemin Ketklieng 10-15, 15-11, 15-5.Top-seeded 16-year-old Tanvi had also bagged a bronze medal in the Badminton Asia Junior Championships earlier this year.In other events, India’s hopes of another medal in women’s singles were dashed when eighth seed Unnati Hooda went down in the quarter-final against second seed Phichitpreechasak of Thailand on Friday.The same day, in the boys’ singles quarterfinals, Gnana Dattu put up a strong fight against third seed Liu Yang Ming Yu of China but his spirited effort was not enough to avoid a 15-11, 15-13 loss.The mixed doubles combination of Bhavya Chhabra and Vishakha Toppo also fell short in the quarterfinals against Chinese Taipei’s Hung Bing Fu and Chou Yun An 15-9, 15-7.
