Bilbao: Goh Jin Wei, the No. 1 seed and defending champion was sent crashing out of the 2016 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Junior Championships on Thursday after she was defeated by unseeded Japanese player Natsuki Oie in the 5th round of the girls’ singles category.
Despite earning some hard-fought points until middle of the decider, Oie played great at the end to battle past Goh in the 3-set thriller, winning 10-21, 21-16, 21-16 in 58 minutes.
The Japanese is set to take on China’s Gao Fangjie in the quarter-finals after Gao outlasted Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska 21-18, 21-14 in 41 minutes.
After Goh’s exit, No. 2 seed Chen Yufei of China suddenly becomes the top contender for the World Junior title. Chen eased past Shikha Gautam of India in 26 minutes to play compatriot Han Yue on Friday.
In boys’ singles, Malaysia’s No. 2 seed Lee Zii Jia outplayed Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-shue 21-14, 21-13 to move on into the quarter-finals. Lee will play France’s No. 7 seed Toma Junior Popov for a spot in the semi-finals.
Malaysia’s boys’ doubles pair and No. 6 seeds Leong Jun Hao/Ooi Zi Heng will face a major hurdle in the quarter-finals with No. 1 seeds Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong await them on Friday.
Mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia survived a major scare on Thursday against Rodion Alimov/Alina Davletova of Russia by outlasting the Russian pair 15-21, 21-15, 23-21 in 49 minutes. Chen/Toh will clash with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Kuhoo Garg of India next.
