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Hindustan Times
24-07-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Unnati stuns Sindhu for biggest win of young career
New Delhi: Unnati Hooda, 17, has grown up watching PV Sindhu ply her trade on the badminton court. Not only did she admire Sindhu's game but also aspired to play like the double Olympic medallist all her life. Unnati Hooda defeated PV Sindhu in the women's singles at the China Open Super 1000 badminton tournament, in Changzhou. (BWF/Badminton Photo) In 2022, the Rohtak shuttler got an opportunity to pick the former world champion's brains when the two were part of India's Uber Cup team. The self-confessed Sindhu fan had, back then, spoken about the learnings from playing alongside her idol while expressing her admiration for Sindhu's 'aggression and smashes.' On Thursday, Unnati put those learnings to good effect as she used the same aggression and smashes to conjure the biggest win of her career, beating Sindhu 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 in 73 minutes to enter the women's singles quarter-finals of the $2 million China Open in Changzhou. 'I didn't expect to win. I came thinking that I'll give it my all. The result was the last thing (on my mind). So, winning against her, it's a surprise for me too. But I am happy that I was able to win. It was a really good win but tough,' said the teenager. 'It was very difficult as she was giving it her all. I also gave my all. It was a very tiring match. There are many lessons but the main one is that we have to keep fighting till the last shuttle.' Unnati was fired up right from the start, dominating the first game as Sindhu seemed to struggle with the drift. The youngster very nearly closed out the match in the second game when ahead 19-18 but five-time World Championship medallist showed great resolve to level the contest. Unnati kept troubling Sindhu with her deft touches at the net to which Sindhu had no response. She also kept going for the lines during attack for which she was rewarded with multiple winners. Knowing she has nothing to lose, Unnati relentlessly attacked her opponent with body smashes, forcing a frustrated Sindhu to commit several errors. She extended the rallies to exasperate the world No.15 who succumbed to her first loss to an Indian junior. 'It was a bit hard to control the shuttle. In the third game she took a lead and maintained that. She had some lucky points with some net cords on crucial points. It's good for her, she's done well, and I wish her all the best,' said Sindhu, who had won the Super 1000 event in 2016. World No.35 Unnati will next face Japanese third seed Akane Yamaguchi for a place in the last four in what will be their first meeting. Though she has had reasonable success this year like winning the Singapore International Challenge or reaching the German Open quarters, Unnati credits her semi-final appearance at the Taipei Open in May for her improved performances. 'Reaching the semis in Taipei boosted my confidence. I had some good matches there. That helped me keep my patience in the third game. I was ready to play long rallies which were gruelling, but I managed to stay focused and composed under pressure,' said Unnati. Earlier, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty booked a men's doubles quarter-final spot after beating eighth seeds Leo Rolly Carnando and Bagas Maulana 21-19, 21-19 for their second successive win over the Indonesians. The world No.12 pairing will next face Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. However, it was the end of the road for HS Prannoy who went down 21-18, 15-21, 8-21 to sixth seed Chou Tien Chen for his eighth loss to the Chinese Taipei player in 14 meetings.
India Today
24-07-2025
- Sport
- India Today
Who is Unnati Hooda? 17-year-old PV Sindhu fan who just stunned her idol
Just minutes after sealing the biggest win of her fledgling career, Unnati Hooda stood on the sidelines in Changzhou-breathless, yet beaming. Her chest heaved from a match that had tested every inch of her fitness and focus, but the smile refused to fade. The 17-year-old had just beaten PV Sindhu, her idol, a two-time Olympic medallist, and the very player she once travelled with as an awe-struck teenager during her maiden Uber Cup didn't come thinking I would win today," she admitted afterwards, still catching her breath. And yet, she had done exactly that: stunning Sindhu in a fiercely contested three-game battle to storm into the quarter-finals of the China Open Super 1000 on Thursday, July just a few years, and Unnati was a budding shuttler from Chamaria village in Haryana, watching Sindhu's matches on television, imitating her powerful smashes, and dreaming of one day learning from her. That dream partly came true in 2022 when Unnati, then just 14, was selected for the Uber Cup squad. She didn't play a match, but travelling alongside Sindhu was, in her words, "an inspiring experience". That moment planted something deeper in her-not just admiration, but ambition. On Thursday in Changzhou, it came full circle. This time, she wasn't watching Sindhu. She was beating BATTLE OF GENERATIONSIn only their second-ever meeting, Unnati stepped onto the court with a blend of reverence and readiness. Sindhu, having just knocked out sixth seed Tomoko Miyazaki in the previous round, looked resurgent and brought with her a commanding court presence that could overwhelm most emerging challengers. But Unnati was unfazed. She matched Sindhu rally for rally, showing immense maturity to adapt, regroup, and ultimately triumph 21-16, 19-21, match was filled with drama-line-call controversies, energy-sapping rallies, and wild momentum swings. But the defining image came in the final game. Unnati, leading 17-13, found a gear beyond her years to close out the match with sharp winners and ice-cool journey began at the age of eight. Born on 20 September 2007 in Rohtak, Haryana, she was introduced to the sport by her father, Upakar Hooda, a badminton enthusiast himself. Before long, she was outplaying older boys at the local academy. Recognising her potential, Upakar eventually quit his job to support her tournament travel across a bronze medal at the U-13 nationals in 2018 to being crowned U-15 national champion in 2019, her rise was steady. Under the watchful eye of coach Parvesh Kumar, she fine-tuned her technique through exhaustive drills-often playing up to 1,600 drop shots in a single dedication bore fruit in 2022, when she won the Odisha Open at just 14, becoming the youngest Indian ever to claim a BWF Super 100 title. Later that year, she became the first Indian girl to reach the final of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships (U-17), clinching silver. Her momentum continued in 2023, with wins at the Abu Dhabi Masters and India International Challenge, elevating her into the world's top ranked as high as world No. 35, Unnati is climbing fast. She had reached the semifinals of Taipei Open, a Super 300 event earlier this AND COMPOSEDWhat distinguishes Unnati isn't only her smooth footwork or anticipation-though both are remarkable-it's her mental resolve. Her win over Sindhu wasn't a flash of brilliance; it was the result of preparation, belief, and the ability to stay calm in pressure moments."She was giving her all, so I had to give my all," she said after the win-an understated summary of a match that demanded everything from off the court, her focus is unwavering. In the midst of international tournaments and global travel, Unnati managed to score an impressive 93 percent in her Class 12 board exams in 2025. Her discipline, clearly, extends well beyond the boundaries of the next is a quarter-final clash against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi, a two-time world champion and one of the most formidable players on the circuit. Another steep test awaits-but if this week has shown anything, it's that Unnati Hooda no longer plays with wide-eyed admiration. She plays to those wondering where India's next PV Sindhu or Saina Nehwal might emerge from, the answer may well lie in the state that gave India its first badminton icon-Haryana."She's coming up [the ranks] and I wish her all the very best," Sindhu said after their encounter."Indian badminton is picking up and doing well, and many more girls like her are coming up. It's a good sign."And when the legend nods in approval, you know the future has truly arrived.- Ends
Indian Express
24-07-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Unnati Hooda, 17, defeats PV Sindhu at China Open 2025 in 73-minute marathon
Meticulous Sindhu-centric tactical preparation, defensive solidity and some clean, gutsy stroke hitting saw 17-year-old Unnati Hooda land the first blow on PV Sindhu, the 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 win coming in front of a gleaning Changzhou crowd, watching the earth shift slightly in Indian badminton, at China Open. The Haryana teenager, trained by her father and a bunch of sparring mates at Rohtak, has been considered a special talent since she was 14. There was always a stubbornness and abrasion to her game, where she feared no reputation, knew she had the strokes and power and pace to trouble big names, and never lacked self-belief. But it would need more than self-assured poise to get past Sindhu, even while she struggles to go deep into tournaments and is severely impeded in her speed, if not power. Hooda had come prepared – she had been preparing for months, in fact, after being blasted by a big rattling Sindhu game at Syed Modi last Lucknow winter. They were ranked No 35 and No 15 respectively. She knew the big smash would always loom and she needed to absorb that pressure, but she had plans to deny Sindhu any elevation to belt down her hits and keep her busy, head dragged down in retrieval, on the front court. This she did by severely testing Sindhu's lunge. Her height gives her the expansive attack, and even the reach to get to the front court. But the low lunge has always tested Sindhu, and Hooda kept peppering the forehand spots with pinpoint drops – some from huge imbalanced positions. Hooda set the tone early, and, never allowed Sindhu to snatch the lead in the opening set. A clean striker with the racquet, Hooda also has some pretty nifty footwork and anticipation. Her game pace might get tested, starting Akane Yamaguchi on Friday in the quarters, but against Sindhu, her gameplan was watertight. She didn't bother getting intimidated by Sindhu's reach, knowing that even if she retrieved 20 shots, she could fox her on the 21st. So she eschewed errors on the lines, took the uncertainty of minimal court drift, precision mistakes out of the equation. With a good 45 day training block, Hooda's fitness was optimum, and she came prepared for long rallies even as she claimed the opener 21-16, with a clean break from 13-13. Undaunted, her personality always has been, and those around the Indian team talk of her self-assurance when she was unfazed by Sindhu's reputation even when she made the Uber Cup squad at 14. There's no needle as such, but Hooda did hurry her serves (or simple serve the soonest) and twice found Sindhu nor quite ready to receive. Having broken the age old rule of no coaches when two Indians play, the duo also got on with setting down a clear rivalry, where they would use every help available to beat the other – in this case, lines idea coaches. It's always been tricky for Sindhu when she plays Indians – though her last loss came to Ruthvika Gadde years ago, though Saina Nehwal has beaten her in some important finals. Here was another fearless opponent, and it took two enormous cross court smashes for Sindhu to break the second set 19-19 deadlock. Except, the smash is always her last throw of the dice, and the headaches were mounting. Sindhu trailed 11-14, levelled at 15-15 and went on to push a decider, but it was at 13-13 in the second that Hooda made her point. After the rushing serve, the immediate point thereafter was one of the longest, blistering paced rallies played by Indians on the circuit in many years, and Hooda drew the best out of Sindhu even, like Nozomi Okuhara used to. Hooda used a variety of drops and tosses, at a fast clip, to harry Sindhu, and leave her panting. More nuanced was the body attack. Sindhu's body defense, owing to her frame has always been tentative, but Hooda didn't quite smash into her torso, simply looped the shuttle at awkward lengths forcing Sindhu to thwack it out of the court in an untidy parry. Most youngsters would be deflated at coming up to 19-all amd being denied the match in straight sets. Hooda though came to fight. In the decider, prepared for the decider crucially, she opened up the court cerebrally. Her ability to play set-up points leading up to a winnervor drawing out an error is rather impressive. She could lull Sindhu into thinking she had a chance, could push her to corners, trigger really awkward positions from which Sindhu struggled to recover for the next return. And then she brought out her own smash. It's not a power bazooka, but it's more than strictly workable. She puts a lot of shoulder on it, and two down the lines stunned Sindhu a little, as Hooda opened up a 15-10 lead. Continuously chasing, with Hooda calmly inscrutable in front of her, Sindhu couldn't quite take control of any rallies, besides going for the smashes. Hooda's own scramble defense is not too shabby – not on her body, not on the lines. And she simply threw herself at the shuttle, and even if she didn't retrieve half a dozen smashes, she bought herself time and breath with elaborate mopping of the court. It was pretty evident when Sindhu went for the lines and sent one wide, trying to keep the shuttle away from Hooda that she wasn't entirely comfortable. Two errors from over hitting brought Hooda to the threshold. And the win was sealed with an expansive cross court smash – that would make PV Sindhu very proud of her. Upkaar Hooda, Unnati's father, would say immediately after the match that they had skipped lunch preparing for the big match. The hunger to succeed, those in her team say, is quite insatiable. Beating PV Sindhu will be seen as only a start of a career – an appetizer.
The Star
20-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
No easy way out for Jin Wei despite a redraw
PETALING JAYA: A last-minute change in opponent in the women's singles event at the Malaysian Masters did little to boost Goh Jin Wei's chances. The initial draw had pitted Jin Wei against 2020 champion Chen Yufei of China in the first round on Wednesday (May 21) at Axiata Arena. However, the world No. 8 pulled out of the tournament, and a redraw saw the Malaysian set to face Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon instead. Ratchanok is a two-time winner of the tournament, having lifted the title back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. Ratchanok, the sixth seed, was originally drawn to face Vietnam's Nguyen Thuy Linh in the first round. Jin Wei has struggled against the Thai ace in the past, losing all four of their previous encounters. Their last meeting came two years ago at the Uber Cup in Bangkok. Her coach Nova Armada admitted that the redraw offered no real advantage, saying it remains an equally tough challenge for Jin Wei as she aims to go further in the tournament. 'To be honest, the challenge is equally tough even though she's now facing Ratchanok. But I think it is slightly better than going up against Yufei," said Nova. 'In terms of preparation, Jin Wei has done everything right. But when you are drawn to meet a top opponent in the opening round, it will always be difficult. We have no choice but to try and put up a strong fight. 'Whether it is Yufei, Ratchanok or any other opponent, it makes little difference. All we can do is go all out and give our very best,' said Nova. Apart from Yufei, Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan and India's Tasnim Mir have also withdrawn from the tournament. Their absence paved the way for players like Asuka Takahashi, Huang Yu-hsun and Wen Yu Zhang to be promoted to the main draw.
