Denmark Open Super 750, QF as it happened: Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag bow out; end of India’s campaign

1.45 am: That’s that for this blog, as well as India’s contention at the Denmark Open 2022. There have been some fine moments for Indian badminton this year, but today wasn’t one of those days. Not just results, defeats do happen. But both Satwik-Chirag and Lakshya sen were far from their best today, and the performances were not at the bar set by themselves. Perhaps the rustiness of returning after a break, played a part. Over to Paris next for the French Open.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 12-21 Kodai Naraoka: Marvellous stuff from Naraoka today, Lakshya Sen was not quite at the races. Comfortably outplayed by a pacy performance by the Japanese. That is the end of India’s campaign in Odense.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 12-20 Kodai Naraoka: Match points galore for Kodai.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 11-19 Kodai Naraoka: Finish line in sight at Lakshya send another return wide. But gets the serve back with a good smash.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 10-18 Kodai Naraoka: Fabulous from Naraoka. In complete control. Nice rally, closed out with a precise down the line smash. Tame return from the Indian next.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 10-16 Kodai Naraoka: For every good point he plays, he makes an error. And the lead is back up to 6 for Naraoka as Lakshya sends another lift long.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 9-13 Kodai Naraoka: Incredible net exchange, uff! Both players show their touch and in the end, touch of luck for Lakshya with the net chord. What a point.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 8-13 Kodai Naraoka: It’s a slightly more even battle now but even won’t cut it here for Lakshya. He needs a big run of points. As we say that, couple of errors from Kodai.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 6-11 Kodai Naraoka: Baby steps... but that is a good start out of the interval by Lakshya. Three straight points.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 3-11 Kodai Naraoka: Besides the fact that Naraoka is playing superbly, Lakshya has not been able to control his errors. He looks exasperated as two of his lifts sail long and Naraoka has a huge lead at the interval.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 3-9 Kodai Naraoka: Breathtaking rally (for Lakshya especially) who works so hard to stay in the point but then Naraoka’s pressure pays off.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 3-7 Kodai Naraoka: Better there from Lakshya. Good movement across the court, induces the error from Kodai. But a long rally follows that goes Kodai’s way on a backhand error from the Indian. Tame end after a good point.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21, 1-6 Kodai Naraoka: Indian in big, big trouble here. Struggling with his radar, not getting the lengths right on his shuttle. (Without commentary inputs, I am not 100% certain about the drift but it seems Lakshya is not able to get his lifts right).

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21 Kodai Naraoka: In what was a back and forth battle, Lakshya concedes the opener to the Japanese shuttler 17-21. Naraoka dominated at the net for most part.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 17-21 Kodai Naraoka: There’s a rare front-court error from Kodai and one game point save. But the Japanese converts the second one and he is bouncing there. Lakshya has to take the scenic route if he seeks a spot in the semifinals.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 16-20 Kodai Naraoka: There’s a quiet fist pump from Lakshya as he hits a lovely drive winner and gets the serve back but then misses a net shot next rally.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 15-19 Kodai Naraoka: The Japanese youngster is doing it all at the net.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 15-18 Kodai Naraoka: It seems Lakshya is not happy with his footing. Another good rally, ends with Kodai winning it with a forehand block. The Indian then sends a lift long. The opening game is slipping away

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 15-16 Kodai Naraoka: Impressive stuff from both the youngsters. Two points, one each, won by proactive net play. Then Kodai’s turn to show his defensive wares to keep the rally alive and kill it with a smash.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 14-14 Kodai Naraoka: Incredible rally at 11-13 that Lakshya wins to make it a 1-point game and then soon takes the lead. Kodai then wins another solid point to level things up. This is heating up nicely.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 9-11 Kodai Naraoka: In the brief while that our attention was on the stunning result on court 1, Lakshya closed the gap down to 9-10 before Kodai took a slender lead into the interval.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 4-6 Kodai Naraoka: Better from Lakshya now and both players are starting to settle into a rallying rhythm. Naraoka still with the lead.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen 2-5 Kodai Naraoka: A bit wayward from Lakshya to start off, he is at the near end.

Men’s singles, Lakshya Sen vs Kodai Naraoka: And finally, it’s time for the final match on court 2. A reunion of sorts between two familiar foes from their junior days. Lakshya and Naraoka last met at the Youth Olympic Games semifinal that Lakshya won.

Court 2: And the men’s doubles match goes the distance... Lakshya’s wait continues.

Men’s doubles: The scratch pairing from TPE (one half Olympic champion) is continuing their good run it would seem.

Watch: One of the points of the tournament

Women’s singles: A Superb win for He Bing Jiao against world champion Akane Yamaguchi.

Men’s singles: Some incredible point in this Lee Zii Jia/Jonatan Christie match.

Men’s doubles highlights: Chia/Soh prove too good once again for Satwik/Chirag

Women’s singles: Akane looked in control in the opening game in this match but has gone off the boil a bit here. Reminder there is one more after this before Lakshya’s.

Women’s singles: Another fascinating rivalry underway on Court 2. One more match after this before Lakshya takes to court.

Women’s singles: Chapter 33 went to Ratchanok Intanon as she saved match points against Tai Tzu Ying to end a series of 6 straight defeats.

Men’s doubles: The Minions pull a few rabbits out of their collective hats to win a match that they looked set to lose in straight games. Indonesian men’s doubles is unreal. Just unreal.

Time for a break... Lakshya Sen vs Kodai Naraoka is three matches away on Court 2.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 19-21 Chia-Soh: The wait continues for a win vs Chia-Soh. The World Championships semifinal was a much closer affair than this one. This match feels like the Indians lost, more than the Malaysians won. They were of course the better pair with their tactics and skills, but the Indians were quite some way off their best. Second game was a much better contest but even that was littered with errors.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 19-21 Chia-Soh: Chirag does well on defence but after another fast exchange, Satwik makes the error from the back court. And the Malaysians extend their record to 7-0 against Satwik-Chirag

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 19-20 Chia-Soh: Can Satwik take this to deuce? Break in play to wipe the courts.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 19-20 Chia-Soh: Gorgeous work at the net by Chirag, and he closes the rally out too. Two match points saved.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 18-20 Chia-Soh: Good play from Chirag. One match point saved.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 17-20 Chia-Soh: Three match points for MAS.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 17-19 Chia-Soh: Nice service return winner by Satwik and a lovely follow up by Chirag. They need a run of points here but they give the serve back as Chia nails his smash. Good pressure from Chirag at the net to get the serve back, holding it is another matter.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 15-18 Chia-Soh: Now it is slowly getting out of reach for the Indians.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 15-16 Chia-Soh: Nearly a magical block Chia. Oh dear and now yet another serve fault called on Chirag! Fourth or fifth at the moment. The Indians are not happy.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 14-15 Chia-Soh: Some wiping of the court for us to catch our breath back, not sure about them!

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 14-15 Chia-Soh: Serve won back, given back right away the Indians. A lightning rally follows where the Malaysians’ relentless pressure pays off.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 13-13 Chia-Soh: Chia/Soh with 4 straight points and we are back level again.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 13-9 Chia-Soh: Chirag has an arm around his back from Boe this time and he calls for them to keep this going (in more technical terms).

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 11-9 Chia-Soh: Chirag’s defence is coming to the party in 2nd game! Some insane flexibility from him on display and he has taken his game up a notch after Boe’s talk. SatChi lead 11-9 at the break. This is now a proper battle. MAS stepping up too, in their quality.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 9-9 Chia-Soh: A little while earlier Steen was praising Soh, but he has now made a couple of bad errors. Chia then gets the serve back with a stunning piece of touch play at the net.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 8-7 Chia-Soh: A great challenge from Chirag (after a great shot at the net) and the Indians sneak ahead. A little while earlier, there was another service fault by the way.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 7-7 Chia-Soh: All even in these opening exchanges

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 5-5 Chia-Soh: A brilliant rally on the defence from Chirag but the world champions eventually win the point. “Too fast for me in real time,” says Steen. 30 shots! We are back level soon after.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21, 3-3 Chia-Soh: A few errors from the MAS to start.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-21 Chia-Soh: In a match so far where all 4 players have struggled to control their errors, it is the Indians who made more errors. Satwik-Chirag trail after losing game 1 16-21. And Mathias Boe is not a happy man at the break.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 16-20 Chia-Soh: A bagful of game points for the MAS pair but the Indians save 2. Fair to say this opening game is not reflective of the fact that these players have four medals at the World Championships (gold and bronze) between them. Hopefully gets better from here.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 13-18 Chia-Soh: And now Soh has also made a service fault. Geez! And Satwik gives it right back with a short serve. This is so poor, really.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 11-14 Chia-Soh: Ah, second service error for height from Chirag. And as it always happens, the server is not happy with the call. And now it is called on Satwik. Geez. The difference in score right now is the service faults from Indians essentially.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 8-11 Chia-Soh: Mathias Boe says the Indians are doing well when they get the chance to attack but at times they are standing still and a bit passive. “Loosen up a little bit and step into it,” he finishes.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 8-11 Chia-Soh: Malaysians with the lead at the interval after a super fast flat exchange ends with a Chirag over.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 7-9 Chia-Soh: MAS pull ahead by 2 points again and this time a good switch by the Indians with Chirag at the backcourt and Satwik at the net finishing the point. But Chirag is immediately called for a service fault for height.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 6-6 Chia-Soh: Wonderful combination play by the Indians and we are level again, applause from the Indians’ coach Mathias Boe.

Men’s doubles, Chirag-Satwik 4-5 Chia-Soh: Was tight in the early exchanges but MAS pair took a 2 point lead. Chia makes a service fault to give the serve back to Indians.

Men’s doubles: Here we go then! Chirag Shetty / Satwiksairaj Rankireddy vs Aaron Chia / Soh Wooi Yik. World c’ships semifinal rematch. 0-6 on the H2H. But the Indians got really close last time around. Here we go.

Women’s singles: After six straight defeats, Intanon has finally ended the streak against TTY. The H2H is now 15-18 between these two brilliant rivals.

Women’s singles: And TTY keeps plugging away at the lead. She has the serve back at 15-19. Intanon has lost the last six matches against TTy. Will that start playing on her mind.

Women’s singles: As we wait for Satwik-Chirag, an entertaining match underway between old foes. Possibly a thrilling finish awaits if Tai Tzu Ying can find her groove here.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of badminton, as action continues at the Denmark Open Super 750 event. Two quarterfinals featuring Indians to look forward to.

• On Thursday, world championships bronze medallist Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty defeated the All England champions Bagas Maulana-Muhammad Fikri in straight games 14-21, 16-21. Today, they take on reigning world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, a pair they are yet to defeat in six previous meetings (including the recent world championships semifinal).
• Lakshya Sen defeated HS Prannoy after a breezy first game and a brilliant second game 21-9, 21-18. He will now face a familiar foe from junior days in Kodai Naraoka [Japan], the man who defeated him in the quarterfinals of the 2017 junior World championships. Lakshya got one over him at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in the semifinals.

Screenshots in the blog courtesy BWF / Viacom 18 / Tournament Software