Junior’s rise up the rankings in May

Shraddha Gopalakrishnan soared to new heights in May as the badminton sensation was crowned number one in Europe for under-17 women’s doubles.

The teenager saw her ranking rise after women’s doubles and mixed doubles victory at the U17 Austrian Open.

She teamed up with close friend Martha Ng in the former, and the duo beat Germany’s Juna Bartsch and Marie Fein in a thrilling 21-18 20-22 21-10 final to take the title, before Gopalakrishnan claimed her second title alongside Jasper Wong in the mixed event.

“I had some good matches with both of my partners and enjoyed the support and encouragement from my teammates and coaches,” she said.

Gopalakrishnan’s success was just one of many English victories in Austria, with George Clare and Sajan Senthuran also taking victory in the men’s doubles.

They beat fellow English duo Wong and Yixiang Hou in the final 18-21 21-17 21-17 as English pairs enjoyed a clean sweep of doubles events in Austria.

There was also a silver medal for Senthuran in the men’s singles, while Tejas Singh and Vedanshi Jain clinched mixed doubles bronze.

Wong said: “I enjoyed playing with tough opponents in this tournament, especially when me and my partner can deal with the problems together. Teamwork makes dreamwork.”

“The experience of medalling internationally was great, with lessons learnt along the way,” added Hou.

At the end of May, there was plenty of success at the Danish Junior.

A handful of U15 players received an incredible opportunity to train at the Gade Academy for a couple of days in Copenhagen before heading to Farum for the tournament and winning four medals overall.

Mudra Mayekar and Vedanshi Jain made it an English one-two in the women’s singles event, with Mayekar taking the spoils 21-19 21-17 in a thrilling final.

Phil Daniel and Nikhil Pulikkottil won gold in men’s doubles after battling back from a tough quarter final appearance to take their final 21-17 21-18, while Hayley Liow and Mutiara Mandala clinched bronze in the women’s doubles.

At the U15 Czech Junior event in Prague, Aarav Kotian and Rory Le Masurier took men’s doubles silver.

The young duo took the first game 21-14 against Germany’s Max Hahn and Frederik Volkert in the final but eventually fell to a 14-21 21-15 21-11 loss.

Le Masurier also went on to win mixed doubles bronze alongside Charvi Ramanujam.

Elsewhere, there was an U13 camp at the Jubilee Sport Centre, University of Nottingham, with young athletes able to hone their skills on court, as U17 and U19 players took part in their own EJPP Training Camp at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes.

On the domestic circuit, Hou and Wong were back on the podium at the U19 Sankey Academy Gold event later in the month.

The duo took open doubles victory with a 21-11 21-8 win over Daniel Kemp and David Ng, as Rajvi Parab clinched the women’s singles and Jaxon Clarke and Lucy Dodds won the mixed doubles event.

All eyes were on the three-game battles in the open singles and women’s doubles.

Sonish Hathi roared back from a difficult first game to take the spoils against Kalyan Manoj in the former. Manoj took the first 21-9 before Hathi adjusted and took the victory 9-21 21-18 21-18.

Mia Fox And Tin Wing Raye Wan downed Gopalakrishnan and Ng with a brilliant 21-18 17-21 21-13 in the women’s doubles.

In the U11 Hampshire Gold, Isabelle Chung and Jacob Wong took the victory in their respective singles events.

Chung was pushed all the way in her first game but eventually took the win 16-14 15-11 as Wong dominated his final against Vihaan Krishna for a 15-7 15-6 triumph.

Oscar Choong and Veer Radia clinched open doubles victory as Sashvitha Gobinath and Anisha Khanchane won the girls doubles.