Badminton

Siti Zulaikha ready for Adarshini challenge at Asian Juniors

KUALA LUMPUR: Shuttler Siti Zulaikha Azmi will start her gold medal quest in the girls' singles event at the Asian Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.

Touted as one of Malaysia's gold medal contenders, the second seed, who received a first-round bye, will take on India's Adarshini Shri Boopathy Balaji, who defeated Vietnam's Nguyen Khanh Ngoc Luong 21-5, 21-4 in the first round.

Compatriot and sixth seed Ong Xin Yee, meanwhile, will face Taiwan's Wang Pei Yu, who overcame Kahrene Ivy Zapanta of the Philippines 21-7, 21-5 on Wednesday.

Malaysia's Dania Sofea Zaidi defeated Desmoelya Rizky Hardianti of Indonesia 24-22, 18-21, 21-8 in the first round and faces Christel Rei Fuentespina of the Philippines on Thursday.

However, Oo Shan Zi failed to progress after losing 21-13, 21-10 to Vietnam's Bui Bich Puong.

In the boys' singles, Malaysia's Sng Wie Ming defeated Saudi Arabia's Alwathiq Alabidi 21-16, 21-9 to set up a date with 11th seed South Korean Lee Sun Jin in the third round.

Sixth seed Faiq Haziq will take on Japan's Kazuma Kawano in the third round after seeing off Hong Kong's Lam Ka To 21-18, 21-17.

In mixed doubles, Datu Anif Isaac Datu Asrah-Sofea Dania defeated Japan's Yuto Nakashizu-Rin Ueno 21-19, 17-21, 21-17 and will face top seed Attawut Sreepeaw-Sabrina Sophita Wedler of Thailand in the second round on Thursday.

In the boys' doubles, the world No.1 junior pairing of Aaron Tai and Kang Khai Xing, who received a bye in the first round, will start their campaign against Japan's Toshiki Nishio-Hyuga Takano of Japan or Vietnam's Nguyen Hoang Thai Son-Tran Quoc Khanh on Thursday.

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