PV Sindhu crashed out of China Open. Photo: AP
Star Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen progressed to the quarterfinals with a straight-game win, but two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu‘s campaign ended in the second round of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
Lakshya, who missed out on a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, looked at his lethal best while disposing off Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-6 21-18 in a 46-minute men’s singles second round match.
Lakshya will be up against the winner of the match between Japan’s Takuma Obayashi and third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark. But it turned out to be another disappointing outing for Sindhu as she lost to Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min in a hard-fought women’s singles contest.
World No.19 Sindhu, who dispatched the higher-ranked Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-17 21-19 in the opening round, fought valiantly before going down 16-21 21-17 21-23 to Min in a match that lasted one hour and nine minutes.
It was curtains for the other two surviving Indian women’s singles players as Anupama Upadhyaya and Malvika Bansod crashed out in the second round.
While Anupama lost 7-21 14-21 to Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira, Malvika was thrashed 9-21 9-21 by eight-seeded Supanida Katethong of Thailand. The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand was no match for second seeded Chinese pair of Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning.
The world number 18 Indian duo, currently at eight spot in the BWF World Tour rankings, lost 16-11 11-21 against their Chinese opponents in a second round match lasting just 43 minutes.
Defending champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who returned to action after a break following the Paris Olympics, also moved to the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles with a 21-19 21-15 win over Danish pair of Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Soggard.
The Asian Games gold medallist Indian duo will meet the Danish combination of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, who are seeded second here, in the next round.
Lakshya vs Gemke
Lakshya started in an aggressive fashion and had his nose ahead over Gemke in the opening game.
He used his brilliant net play and clever court coverage to set up his points. Lakshya never looked in trouble as he enjoyed an upper hand over his rival to pocket the first game easily.
The second game, however, witnessed a closer contest with both the shuttlers fighting tooth and nail till the first 10 points before Lakshya took a slender one point lead at the halfway stage when Gemke hit the shuttle wide.
Lakshya’s brilliant pick ups from net was the hallmark of his game and he used booming court smashes to take a 14-12 lead. Lakshya used his fast hands to force unforced errors from his opponent to take 20-16 lead. Gemke saved two match points before Lakshya closed out the contest with two powerful smashes.
Sindhu vs Min
The hard-wrenching defeat was Sindhu’s first loss against her Singaporean rival in six meetings.
It was a neck-and-neck affair between Sindhu and Min till the first six points but the Singaporean upped her game and capitalised on a few unforced errors from her opponent to take a five-point advantage (11-6) at the first break.
Sindhu, however, didn’t give up and clawed her way back with some long rallies and fine court play to pocket four straight points and reduce the margin to 11-10.
The close contest continued till 16 points before Min upped her game and won five consecutive points to take the first game.
In the second game, Sindhu came out attacking and raced to an early 8-5 lead which Min slowly reduced but the Indian kept her cool and used her experience to pocket four straight points from 17 to level the scores. The decider was a treat to watch as both the shuttlers were in no mood to give an inch to each other.
At one point Sindhu had a 13-9 lead but a determined Min didn’t give up as she displayed fine attacking game and capitalised on a tiring Sindhu’s errors to seal the match in her favour.
