Purva Barve finished with a bronze medal after a semifinal loss in the Russian Junior White Nights 2017 at the "Arena", Gatchina-Russia.

The 16-year-old World No. 43 thus ended her 21-match winning streak that she enjoyed across four tournaments. She began her run by winning gold in the Israel Junior, added a back to back gold at the Italian Open, returned to India and bagged the All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala, before embarking for the Russian Junior challenge.

At the “Arena,” third seeded Purva stretched top seeded and World No. 12 Chasinee Korepap (Thailand) to the maximum before bowing 18-21, 20-22 in a long drawn 46-minute encounter.

The loss for the Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy – NKBA trainee was the second in her career. Earlier, Purva lost to the Thai in the Under-17 section at Singapore two years ago.

Enroute the semifinal round, Purva played her quarter final match against Yulia Vasilyeva (Rus) which she won 21-10, 21-15 in the morning session.

Purva’s run was laced with a host of Russian players as opponents. In Round 1 she accounted for Mariya Malygina (Rus) 21-9 21-16, but then found herself battle through a tough three game fight against Anastasiia Sharapova to prevail 21-12, 21-23, 21-14.

RESULTS

SF: l 1-Chasinee Korepap (Tha) 21-18, 22-20 - 46 min
QF: b Yulia Vasilyeva (Rus) 21-10, 21-15 - 27 min
R2: b Anastasiia Sharapova (Rus) 21-12, 21-23, 21-14 - 52 min
R1: b Mariya Malygina (Rus) 21-9 21-16 - 20 min