BWF World C’ships: Unnati makes winning start on debut, Rohan-Ruthvika bow out in mixed doubles opener

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Unnati Hooda kickstarted her debut BWF World Championships campaign with a straight-games win over Thet Htar Thuzar of Myanmar here at Indira Gandhi Stadium on Tuesday.

Unnati will next face 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada, who beat Chinese Taipei’s P. Chiu 22-20, 21-12.

A tightly contested opening game saw both players trade points without either side establishing a firm lead. After 21 minutes of intense, end-to-end rallies, Hooda edged out the opener 22-20.

Shifting gears immediately after the change of ends, Hooda took total control with a blistering aggressive spell, racing to a commanding 11-1 lead.

Although Thuzar fought back to trim the margin to 20-16, the Indian shuttler held her composure under pressure to seal the final point and close out the match.

Earlier, mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde suffered a defeat against the Canadian pair of Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai in their

Later in the day, ace shuttler and Lakshya Sen will face Austria’s Collins Filimon in his men’s singles first round match. Meanwhile, Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh will take on Turkey’s Emre Sonmez and Yasemen Bektas.

In the second round of women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face the United States’ Lauren Lam and Allison Lee. Another duo of Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi will face on Bulgarian pair of Stefani Stoeva and Gabriela Stoeva.

On Day 1, Asian championship silver medallist Ayush Shetty created the biggest upset of the BWF World Championships 2026 as he kept his nerves to upset top seed and defending champion Shi Yuqi in the first round.

Ayush’s victory over Yuqi ranks among the biggest first-round upsets in the history of the world championships as the Chinese becomes the first defending men’s singles champion to be knocked out in the opening round of the tournament.

Men’s doubles combination of MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan began India’s march with a 21-16, 6-4 (retd) win over Ireland’s Scott Guildea and Paul Reynolds. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand then did not break much sweat during the 21-9, 21-13 win over Spain’s Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez in women’s doubles opening round.

Former world champion PV Sindhu sailed through her opening women’s singles match with a 21-7, 21-11 win over Sophia Noble of Ireland. The second women’s doubles combination of Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi then capped off the day with a 22-20, 21-14 win against Nikol Carulla/Carmen Maria Jimenez.

–IANS

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