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Team India sealed their quarterfinal spot in the Badminton Asia Junior Mixed Team Championships with a dominant 2-0 (55-31, 55-21) win over Kazakhstan in their Group C opener here on Saturday.
With the all-important clash against Chinese Taipei to decide the group winner looming, India mixed things up in doubles, according to a release. Girls' doubles pairing of Durga Esha Kandrapu and Keerthy Manchala gave India a strong start with an 11-5 win over Alissa Kuleshova and Diana Namenova. Puneeth Suresh and Deepti Raj Aditi were then taken the distance by Mustafa Malikzhan and Kuleshova but they managed to eke out a 11-10 win to take the score to 22-15. The Indians then dominated the next three categories to win the first set. The second set then turned out to be a cakewalk as none of the players conceded more than six points in any of the matches. Meanwhile, Thailand Masters winner Devika Sihag upset third seed Riko Gunji of Japan, while Rounak Chouhan continued his dream run to reach the semifinals of the US Open badminton tournament here. Devika kept her nerves in the business end of both the games to beat Gunji 22-20, 21-19 in the women's singles quarterfinals, while Chouhan defeated Israel's Misha Zilberman 23-21, 21-11 in just 38 minutes to reach his first men's singles BWF World Tour Super 300 semifinal. Later in the day, former world number one Kidambi Srikanth packed off Liao Jhuo-Fu of Chinese Taipei 21-9, 12-21, 21-8 in the other quarterfinals to raise hopes of an all-India final on Sunday. In the semifinals, Chouhan will face eighth seed Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei, while Srikanth will take on fourth seed Yudai Okimoto of Japan. Meanwhile, Devika will face the second seed, Line Christophersen, in the semifinal. The Dane got the better of India's Tanvi Sharma in the quarterfinals 21-16, 11-21, 21-11. In the other quarterfinal clash, Rakshitha Sree went down 15-21, 21-16, 21-12 against Canada's Rachel Chan. (ANI)
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