Tanvi Patri becomes first Indian woman to reach Youth Olympic badminton final
The 15-year-old shuttler defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe to secure India's first women's singles medal at the event in Dakar.
Fifteen-year-old Tanvi Patri became the first Indian woman to reach the badminton singles final at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, on Wednesday, according to The News Mill. The Odisha-born player defeated Japan's second seed, Yuzuno Watanabe, in a three-game semi-final that lasted 54 minutes.
The match scores were 21-14, 11-21, and 21-19. Patri took the first game 21-14, but Watanabe responded with a 21-11 win in the second game to level the match before Patri prevailed in the deciding game.
This achievement guarantees India its first-ever women's singles medal at the Youth Olympics. Patri joins an elite group of Indian shuttlers who have reached the semi-finals of the competition, including HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, and Aditya Joshi.
Previous notable performances include Prannoy winning silver in Singapore in 2010, Sen finishing as runner-up in Buenos Aires in 2018, and Joshi reaching the boys' singles semi-finals in 2014.
Patri will now face China's Yi Xin Zhang in the final. Zhang, a recent World Junior Championships gold medallist, previously defeated Patri 21-18, 21-16 during the Asia Junior Championships quarter-final earlier this year.