Amazingly, Shuttler Ashmita Chaliha from India upset the 5th seed in the very first round.
In the first round of the India Open badminton tournament India’s Ashmita Chaliha beats fifth-seed and world number 28 Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia 24-22, 21-16.
The opening was of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2022, which is part of the HSBC BWF World Tour 500 tournament series, at the KD Jadhav Indoor hall.
Ashmita Chaliha started off well, using her down-the-line smashes to open up an 11-5 lead in the opening game.
Ashmita Chaliha began with a lot of errors
Ashmita began making a lot of errors after the break and Kosetsyaka pounced on the opportunity to first level the score at 14-14 and then again fought back from 16-19 to earn her first game point.
The Guwahati-girl Ashmita Chaliha, had lost to the Russian in their earlier encounter back in 2019. She however, managed to regroup herself in time to force the Russian to make an unforced error.
And then save two more game points before clinching the game with a smash. She will be now facing France’s Yaelle Hoyaux who defeated Riya Mookerjee of India.
After the match she said, “I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last few years. So, I was nervous and that affected me midway in the opening game. But once I won the first game, I was more confident and so I was relaxed in the second game.”
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