By Susil Premalal 

Sri Lanka’s Ranithma Liyanage has qualified for the pre-quarter-finals of the Girls’ Singles at the World Junior Badminton Championships in China. 

This is the first time that a Sri Lankan shuttler has qualified to play in the last 16 of the World Junior Badminton Championships and she is set to take on a Chinese opponent in the quarter-finals.     

Seventeen-year-old Ranithma defeated her Vietnamese opponent in the round of 32 with scores of 21-13, 12-21, 21-16. 

Earlier, she defeated her Indian opponent 16-21, 21-12, 21-15 and another opponent from the USA 21-14, 21-16 in the first and second round matches respectively.