The Indian badminton team beat the Republic of Korea in the quarter-finals of the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2025 and confirmed a historic first-ever medal in the competition on Thursday.
Competing at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati, India came from behind to beat South Korea 44-45, 45-30, 45-33 to progress to the semi-finals. They will face defending champions Indonesia in the semi-finals on Friday.
The first set saw Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu go down 9-5 in the opening boys doubles clash against Cho Hyeong Woo and Lee Hyeong Woo.
The girls doubles combination of Vennala K and Reshika U managed to reduce the deficit by a point after beating Cheon Hye In and Moon In Seo 10-9 before Rounak Chouhan brought them within one point by overcoming Choi Ah Seung 11-9.
However, a 9-4 loss for C Lalramsanga and Aanya Bisht in the mixed doubles against Lee and Cheon meant that Unnati Hooda had to win 15 points before her opponent Kim Han Bi could reach nine.
Unnati began strong by taking a 3-0 lead but Kim managed to draw level at 6-6 and it felt that the set was slipping from India’s hand. However, Unnati dug deep and played long rallies to win five straight points and build pressure on her opponent before drawing level at 44-44 only for her serve on set point to land in the net.
India made two substitutions ahead of the second set with Lalramsanga replacing Gobburu in boys doubles and Vishakha Toppo coming in for Bisht.
Lalramsanga and Bhargav then gave India a positive start with a 9-7 win over Cho and Lee before Vennala and Reshika extended that advantage to six points. India never looked back thereafter and by the time Unnati took the court for the second set, they were already leading by nine points and all she had to do was wrap up the set.
The third set started in the same manner as Lalramsanga and Bhargav gave India a 9-4 lead but Vennala and Reshika ran out of steam after the first 10 points, allowing the South Korean combination of Cheon and Moon to put their team ahead by two points.
Chouhan then stepped up and turned the match decisively in India’s favour with a 11-4 win over Choi and gave India a five-point lead. Lalramsanga and Bisht went on to increase that lead to seven points and Unnati beat Kim 9-4 to kickstart the celebrations.
The semi-final appearance assures India of their first-ever mixed-team medal in the history of BWF World Junior Championships.
The 2025 edition of the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships is featuring a new relay format played over best-of-three sets. Each set is won by the first team to reach 45 points, comprising five matches – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Play moves to the next match once a team reaches nine points. Teams are also allowed to change their players for each set.
The BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships, also known as the Suhandinata Cup, will conclude on October 11, followed by the individual championships from October 13 to 19 at the same venue.