Asia U-19 championship: Ruthvika in girls singles quarters

National junior champion Ruthvika Shivani rallied from a game down to overcome Chinese Xinyuan Wang 18-21, 21-18, 21-16 to reach the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Youth (U-19) championship in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on Friday.

The Gopichand Badminton Academy trainee will now take on top seed and world number 17 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand for a berth in the semifinals.

However, Indian challenge in the boys singles came to an end at the pre-quarters when both junior national champion Harsheel Dani and sub junior national champion Aditya Joshi were sent packing in straight games.

Dani went down to Indonesia’s Mustofa Ihsan Maulana 21-17, 21-13 while Joshi lost 21-16, 21-12 against Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei.

Results (pre-quarterfinals):

Girls singles: 6-Ruthvika Shivani bt Xinyuan Wang (Chn) 18-21, 21-18, 21-16

Boys singles: 6-Harsheel Dani lost to Mustofa Ihsan Maulana (Ina) 17-21, 13-21; 15-Aditya Joshi lost to 7-Tzu Wei Wang (Tpe) 16-21, 12-21