Lakshya Sen progressed to the quarter-final stage of the Canada Super Open 500 in Calgary on Thursday when he beat Brazil’s Ygor Coelho 21-15 21-11 in the second round.
PV Sindhu, the other Indian in the singles draw, moved to the quarter-final stage as well, without playing a game after her opponent Natsuki Nidaira of Japan withdrew to give a walkover to the Indian.
The Indian challenge ended in the men’s doubles category after Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost 9-21 11-21 to second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia in the Round of 16.
It was a relatively quick and easy win for the world No 19 Sen who beat the Brazilian in 31 minutes. The latter had knocked out B Sai Praneeth 21-12, 21-17 in the opening round.
Although the first game saw both players stay level with each other up until 13-13, Sen went on a streak of 8 points to close out the opening game.
In the second game, Sen dominated the scoring right from the opening point and didn’t let Coelho have a look in, before wrapping up the match to progress to the quarter-final stage.
Sen will now face another qualifier in Belgium’s Julien Carraggi. The Indian had previously faced him in the 2021 Dutch Open quarter-final and beat him 16-21 22-20 21-7. Sen had gone on to reach the final that year and lost to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew.
Sindhu will face China’s Gao Fang Jie, against whom she hasn’t won a match in three encounters so far, the latest being losing 9-21 21-16 18-21 in the women’s singles semi-finals of the 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team championships in February.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!