Taipei Open Super 300: Unnati Hooda, Ayush Shetty have their chances but go down in the semifinals against the top seeds

That the Indian youngsters lost both of those matches in straight games on semifinals Saturday at the Taipei Open Super 300 is, in equal measure, encouraging and frustrating. They had their chances against the top seeds of the women’s singles and men’s singles draws respectively, but couldn’t quite find a way past the finish line. While Unnati lost the battle of the teenagers against Japan’s Miyazaki 19-21, 11-21 in 43 minutes, Ayush went down 18-21, 17-21 in 42 minutes against local hero Chou.

Unnati’s challenge

At 18, Miyazaki is already in the top 10 in the world and has been notching up impressive wins over the past year or so. At 17, Unnati is a bit behind the Japanese youngster who she had lost to at the 2023 Junior World Championships. But it was the Indian who was off to a better start. The match began with a long rally, with Unnati playing at a high tempo, forcing Miyazaki to play reactive badminton. The Rohtak teen opened up a 3-0 lead with a good body smash, and early indications were that the Indian’s attacking weapons can put Miyazaki under pressure.

In what would turn out to be her most potent shot of the match, however, Miyazaki started finding her footing with her precise smash down the line to Unnati’s forehand side. In Game 1 though, Unnati managed to keep Miyazaki at bay for long periods, showing good reflex defence, some cute backhand blocks, where she took the shuttle really low and late to deceive the former junior World Champ. The Indian led 11-6 at the interval but out of the break, started to rush through the points more, instead of displaying the solidity she had shown in the opening exchanges.

A couple of sensational winners from Miyazaki made it a one-point game at 17-18 as she caught up with Unnati with a pinpoint cross smash that caught the line. The down-the-line smash again did the damage at 19-19, followed by her signature defensive retrieves that gave her a game point – the first time Miyazaki actually had the lead and she duly converted it.

That opening game took the sting out of Unnati, with her father and coach Upkar Hooda looking increasingly agitated in the opening exchanges of Game 2 where she lost her radar with far too many unforced errors. A 11-6 lead for Miyazaki soon became 15-6 and by that point, Upkar’s animated instructions faded away just as Unnati’s fight.

Ayush fights hard

15 years separate Ayush Shetty and Chou Tien Chen, but the youngster has a 15 cms advantage on court when it comes to height. The tall Mangalore shuttler has been steadily improving this season, and in his second semifinal appearance at a Super 300 event, pushed Chou all the way in both games… but the finishing kick eluded. Chou, who loves to engage in gruelling rallies, tried to switch things up. He seemed to have identified early that engaging in long rallies might favour the younger Ayush, and Chou kept the shuttle flat. The match started with a long-ish rally, but the opening exchanges seemed more like a men’s doubles match than singles. Ayush opened up a 7-4 lead to start, but Chou entered the interval with an 11-10 lead – it took just 9 minutes for those first 21 points.

When Chou did lift and give Ayush the height to work with, the Indian showed repeatedly he could go for the kill with great effect – the smashes troubled the 35-year-old. Both men traded blows for the remainder of the opening game, but Chou set up game point opportunities with a body smash at 20-18 and converted it. To his credit, unlike Unnati, Ayush didn’t let the end of the opening game affect the start of his second as he continued to keep Chou on his toes but eventually the four-time Taipei Open champion pushed ahead from 16-16 and closed it out with a big roar in front of his home fans.