Tanvi Patri, 15, reaches Youth Olympics singles semi-finals in Dakar and is one win from medal
Tanvi Patri, 15, advanced to the girls' singles semi-finals at the Youth Olympics in Dakar on Wednesday, November 4, defeating Thailand's Kungkaew Kakanik 21-17, 21-13 in 39 minutes. She is one victory away from securing at least a silver medal and could become the first Indian girl to win a badminton medal at the Youth Olympics.
The third-seeded Indian overcame seventh-seeded Kakanik and has reached the last four without dropping a game in the competition. Her progress to the semi-finals continued an unbroken run of straight-game wins through the earlier rounds.
Only three Indians have previously reached badminton semi-finals at the Youth Olympics: HS Prannoy won silver at the inaugural edition in Singapore in 2010, Lakshya Sen finished runner-up in Buenos Aires in 2018, and Aditya Joshi reached the boys' singles semi-finals in 2014 but returned without a medal.
Tanvi's form this season includes reaching the pre-quarter-finals of the World Junior Championships in Cairo last month, winning the Pontianak International Challenge in Indonesia in August, and finishing runner-up at the Singapore International Challenge days earlier.
The schedule presents a potential challenge: both Tanvi's quarter-final and semi-final are set for Wednesday, leaving limited recovery time between matches. Badminton scheduling at major multi-sport events has been criticised recently; at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in September singles players were required to play two matches on the same day with several contests stretching past midnight.
Born in Balasore, Odisha, Tanvi began playing badminton while her family was living in China, where her father Rabinarayan worked as a software professional; she trained under Chinese coaches before the family returned to India during the Covid-19 pandemic. She joined the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru in 2022 and continues to train there.
Tanvi first made an international mark by winning the Asian Under-15 title in Chengdu in 2024 and added the Asian Under-17 crown at the same venue in September this year, becoming the first Indian to win both continental junior titles.
She will face Japan's second seed Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-finals later on Wednesday; the pair previously met at the 2024 Pathum Thani Junior International Series in Thailand, where Tanvi lost 14-21, 10-21. A win over Watanabe would assure Tanvi of at least a silver medal and make her the first Indian girl to win a badminton medal at the Youth Olympics, while India's challenge in the boys' singles ended after second seed Dev Ruparelia lost to China's Hong Tian Yue 22-24, 10-21 in 37 minutes in the quarter-finals.