Guwahati: Hosts India kicked off their mixed team campaign in the Suhandinata Cup with a commanding win over neighbours Nepal, while Sri Lanka stunned UAE
in a nail-biting finish on the opening day of the BWF World Junior Championships here on Monday.
India, seeded second, experimented with their line-up but still sailed through 45-18, 45-17 in their Group H opener, while Sri Lanka took advantage of the changes made by UAE to win 30-45, 45-34, 45-44.
All other top countries, including 14-time champions China, former champions Indonesia and South Korea had little problem beating their respective opponents in straight sets to get their campaign rolling.
The mixed team championships is being played under a new best of three relay-scoring format. Each tie will be contested for the best of three sets up to 45 points, with each set comprising five matches – one each in men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. Teams can also change their players for each set.
India took advantage of this substitution rules to give most of their players a chance to get some match experience as they played a different combination in all three doubles and different players in singles in the two sets against Nepal.
The former world junior no. 1 boys doubles pair of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu set the ball rolling with a 9-3 win over Kabir KC and Suprim Panta and India never once looked in any kind of trouble.
Unnati Hooda and U-19 Asian Championships bronze medallist Tanvi Sharma were clinical in their respective girls singles matches, while Suryansh Rawat and Rounak Chouhan warmed up for bigger challenges without breaking any sweat.
While most Indian players had played in a different version of the relay-scoring format in the Asian U-19 Mixed Team Championships, it was Unnati’s first outing in this scoring format and the China Open quarterfinalist said that more than her approach to the game, she had to change her pre-match routine more. "I tend to take my time with the warm up in the 21-point game. But here we have to be at our best from the first point," she said.