Tanvi Patri takes historic Youth Olympics badminton silver

India’s Tanvi Patri won silver in the women’s singles badminton event at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on Thursday, losing a closely fought final to China’s reigning World Junior champion Zhang Yi Xin.

Patri took the opening game and led early in the second, but Zhang forced a decider. The Indian then saved five match points and had three chances to win gold before Zhang prevailed.

Patri’s strong start

Patri was slow to settle in the opening game, falling behind 3-5 before winning seven consecutive points to lead 10-5. Her punch tosses created openings, while her controlled net play helped her take the game in 25 minutes.

She carried that momentum into the second game with a 4-0 lead. But the drift from behind began to affect her control on clears, and Zhang took command after the mid-game interval to level the final.

Zhang made the stronger start to the deciding game. Using her cross-court drops, she opened a 19-10 lead, leaving Patri with a steep deficit to overcome.

A final-game fightback

Patri responded by narrowing the gap to 19-15. A cross-court smash error then gave Zhang five match points, but Patri saved every one of them.

The final took another turn when Patri created three chances to close out the gold medal herself. She could not convert them, however, and Zhang went on to win. The result left Patri with silver after a final in which both players had opportunities to finish the match.

Patri had reached the final by beating Japan’s Yuzuno Watanabe 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in the semifinals. That three-game victory secured her place in the gold-medal match against Zhang.

A first for India’s women

The silver makes Patri the first Indian woman to win a badminton medal at the Youth Olympics. Although she fell short of gold, her run included a deciding-game semifinal victory and a final in which she fought back from five match points down.

India’s previous Youth Olympics badminton medals came in men’s singles: H.S. Prannoy won one in 2010 and Lakshya Sen another in 2018. Patri’s result adds a women’s singles medal to that record for the first time.