Dakar (Senegal), Nov 4 — India's Tanvi Patri scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman badminton player to reach the semifinals of the Youth Olympic Games, setting up this sensational achievement with a fine win in the quarterfinals in Dakar on Wednesday.
Seeded third, Tanvi defeated the seventh seed, Kakanik Kungkaew of Thailand, 21-17, 21-13 in 39 minutes in the women's singles quarterfinals.
With this, Tanvi Patri became the first Indian female shuttler to reach the semifinals at the Youth Olympics and needs to win another match to secure a medal. Only three Indian shuttlers have previously reached the badminton semifinals at the Youth Olympics.
Earlier, HS Prannoy won silver at the inaugural edition in Singapore in 2010; Lakshya Sen finished runner-up at the 2018 edition in Buenos Aires. Aditya Joshi reached the boys' singles semifinals in 2014 but returned without a medal.
Tanvi now has an opportunity to create another milestone. A victory in the semifinal will make her the first Indian woman to win a badminton medal at the Youth Olympics. In case of a semifinal defeat, she will have another opportunity to fight for bronze.
Tanvi will face Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe, whom she has previously played once. The two met at the 2024 Pathum Thani Junior International Series in Thailand, where Tanvi went down 14-21, 10-21.
Tanvi will now look to build on this historic achievement as she takes on the challenge of the semifinals.
Earlier, Tanvi topped the Women’s Singles - Group F with a third successive win in the preliminary stage, defeating Australia's Smrithi Adepu 21-4, 21-12 in her last league match.
Both Tanvi and Smrithi had won their respective matches in the group against Jeong Yu Jang of South Korea and Sara Patricia Delgado Gonzallex of Mexico before Tuesday's final Group stage matches.
In the winner-takes-all clash, Tanvi got the better of Smrithi in straight games to top Group F and qualified for the quarterfinals.
The badminton competition at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games features men’s and women’s singles events, with 32 players competing in each category. The competition is being played across two stages - Group Stage followed by the Knockouts.
The players were divided into eight groups of four, with each player facing the other three players in their respective group. The group winner from each group advanced to the knockout stage, with the quarterfinals followed by semifinals and medal matches, with the gold and bronze medals decided on November 5.