Teenage sensation Unnati Hooda produced a stunning upset by beating compatriot and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu to book her place in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the China Open 2025 at the Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium, Changzhou, on Thursday.
In a perfect showcase of India’s present and future in badminton, rising star Unnati kept her composure to record a 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 win over Sindhu in a pulsating Round of 16 contest that lasted 73 minutes.
The 17-year-old, ranked No. 28 in the world, began strongly to comfortably pocket the opening game before the 30-year-old Sindhu, who came into the match on the back of a morale-boosting win over Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki, used all her experience to beat the youngster’s resistance in the second game, forcing the match into the decider.
In the third and final game, Hooda opened a 3-1 lead, and before Sindhu closed the gap to 5-6, Unnati further extended the lead to 10-5. She maintained the advantage at 13-6 before going on to seal the game and match at 21-13, winning five points in a row towards the end of the match.
“This is definitely the biggest win of my career,” Hooda said after the match. “I’ve always looked up to Sindhu didi. Playing against her was a huge challenge, and I just tried to focus on one point at a time.”
Unnati had earlier eased past Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour 21-11, 21-16 in the first round and has been in fine touch this season, with semi-final finishes in Taipei and notable performances at the German Open.
The Haryana youngster will now face World No. 4 and third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarterfinals.
In other Indian action, the world No. 12 men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their strong run, edging past Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando and Bagas Maulana 21-19, 21-19 in straight games, to advance to the quarters.
“It was quite a topsy-turvy match—just back and forth the whole time,” Chirag said. “We’re still not at our peak, but matches like this help us build confidence.”
Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy exited the BWF World Series Super 1000 event after going down fighting 21-18, 15-21, 8-21 to World No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the men’s singles Rd of 16 contest that lasted 65 minutes.