Indian shuttlers Ayush Shetty and Tara Shah notched up impressive wins to advance to the round of 16 on day three of the BWF World Junior Championships in Spokane, USA on Thursday.
In girls' singles, Tara Shah, the third seed, secured a hard-fought victory against Canada's Alena Yu with scores of 23-21 21-16 in a closely contested battle that lasted 30 minutes.
In boys' singles, Ayush showed great composure to register a 21-14, 13-21, 21-19 win over Indonesia's Muhammad Reza Al Fajri.
In the mixed doubles category, the duo of Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Vaishnavi Khadkekar faced Singapore's Nge Joo Jin and Xiao En Heng.
Despite an initial setback, they staged a remarkable comeback and secured victory in the final game, with scores of 19-21, 21-10, 21-7.
In the other mixed doubles tie, Samarveer and Radhika Sharma defeated Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Chan Wen Tse of Malaysia 21-19, 21-18 in another close encounter.
In the girls' singles category, Unnati Hooda was bested by the tournament's top seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan 13-21, 13-21, while in boys' singles, Tushar Suveer suffered a 16-21, 19-21 loss against Indonesia's Alwi Farhan, the fourth seed.
In the girls' doubles section, both the pair of Vennala Kalagotla and Shriyanshi Valishetty and Tanvi Sharma and Radhika Sharma lost against the tournament's fifth seed and third seed pair respectively.
In boys' doubles, Nicholas Raj and Tushar Suveer defeated Spain's Daniel Franco and Rodrigo Sanjurjo 21-10, 21-16 in just 24 minutes, while Divyam Arora and Mayank Rana defeated Estonia's Andrei Schmidt and Hugo Themas 21-19, 21-15 to move to the next round.
Ayush Shetty and Tara Shah along with the four doubles pair will next play in the round of 16.
