Yuzuno Watanabe caused the biggest upset of the YONEX SUNRISE BWF World Junior Championships 2025 so far, beating defending champion and third seed Xu Wen Jing to enter the women’s singles Round of 16.
Watanabe, No.81 on the Junior World Rankings, took down her highly-rated opponent 15-12 11-15 15-10. Xu, the ninth highest ranked Chinese women’s singles player, fought off an early deficit in the third game to climb to 6-all, but Watanabe remained steady and closed out the match in 50 minutes. Interestingly, Watanabe had beaten Xu in both their encounters in the Suhandinata Cup semifinals last week, although that was for 9 points.
It was a good day for Japan, with several contenders progressing. Watanabe’s compatriot Saki Matsumoto caused an upset in the top quarter, taking down UAE’s Prakriti Bharath by a narrow margin in the third game.
Men’s singles saw the exit of Indian hope and 11th seed Rounak Chouhan, who fell in straight games to China’s Li Zhi Hang. Other seeds to fall by the wayside were sixth seed Lee Yu-Jui (Chinese Taipei), seventh seed Bharath Latheesh (UAE), Lam Ka To (Hong Kong China), 13th seed Mady Sow (France) and 15th seed Suryaksh Rawat (India).
Jesper Ostergaard Christensen (right) and Aske Romer of Denmark
Denmark enjoyed a good day in men’s doubles, with two pairs marching ahead. Jesper Ostergaard Christensen/Aske Romer and Phillip Kryger Boe/Salomon Adam Thomasen survived hard battles to make the quarterfinals.
Christensen/Romer took down Indonesia’s Muhammad Rizki Murarrok/Raihan Promono in a tense battle.
“It was a really good game. I had a bad week earlier so tried to turn things around,” said Romer. “It was the best game we ever played. It means a lot to make a good result at the World Junior Championships.
“Of course against Indonesia it will always be tough, they are good with the racket and they put a lot of stress on us, so we tried to take the pace off the shuttle and get on the offensive. For a big part of the game we hit the brakes in the second game and we got a bit nervous also. But we turned it around and it’s an amazing feeling.”
Boe and Thomasen upset 13th seeds Cheung Sai Shing/Deng Chi Fai (Hong Kong China), keeping their nerves at the end of a tight third game to win 15-10 12-15 15-13.
“It was very difficult to recover from the loss in men’s singles,” said Thomasen, who had lost in the men’s singles. “There wasn’t much time to recover but I think I gave it all, so that was enough and I’m proud.”
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