India’s 15-year-old badminton player Tanvi Patri has created history at the Youth Olympic Games. The young shuttler from Odisha became the first Indian player to achieve the feat by reaching the women’s singles final. She now has a chance to win the country’s first gold medal in this event.
In the semifinal played in Dakar, Senegal, Tanvi defeated Japan’s second seed Yujuno Watanabe 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 after a tough contest. In the match that lasted about 54 minutes, Tanvi made a strong start and won the first game. However, the Japanese player fought back in the second game to level the match. The deciding game saw a close battle between the two players, but Tanvi held her nerve in the pressure moments and secured victory to book her place in the final.
With this win, Tanvi has also assured India its first medal in the Youth Olympics women’s singles badminton event. Earlier, she had reached the semifinal by defeating Thailand’s Kungkaew Kananik.
Tanvi will now face China’s Yi Xin Zhang in the gold-medal match. Zhang recently won the World Junior Championships title. The two players had met in the quarterfinals of the Asia Junior Championships this year, where Tanvi suffered defeat. The final will therefore give her an opportunity to avenge that previous loss and create new history for Indian badminton.
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