India’s Lakshya Sen stunned fourth seed Wang Tzu Wei in straight games to qualify for the quarter-finals at the Hylo Open Super 500 badminton in Saarbrucken, Germany on Thursday.
Kidambi Srikanth was the other Indian who progressed to the quarter-finals after earning a hard-fought victory against Korea’s Dong Keun Lee.
Sen came through two hard-fought games but came out on top to record a truly impressive 21-17, 21-15 victory. He will take on Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the quarter-final. The Thai shuttler is a familiar foe for Sen, as he had defeated the Indian in the 2018 Junior World Championships semifinal enroute to winning the title. He is ranked 24th in the world currently, compared to Sen’s 21.
The seventh-seeded Srikanth had to toil hard for 56 minutes before eking out a 21-9, 19-21, 21-10 win in the pre-quarterfinal. The match was much closely fought than what the scoreline suggests.
Srikanth will now meet Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus, who is seeded third.
Elsewhere, there was disappointment in store for Indian fans as Sourabh Verma lost to Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharaoen 13-21 10-21 in 33 minutes.
In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy lost to Nita Violina Marwah and Syaikah Putri in straight games in the last 16 clash. The Indonesians, both 20 years old, won 21-15, 21-16 in just 35 minutes.
(With PTI inputs)
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