Lakshya in quarters; Srikanth, Prannoy knocked out of India Open
Lakshya overcame Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 21-11 in the second round to be the only Indian alive in singles.
New Delhi: Lakshya Sen advanced to the quarter-finals but campaigns of Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came to an end at the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Thursday.
Satwik-Chirag lost to Japan's Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita in the second round while Srikanth went down 21-14, 17-21, 21-17 to France's Christo Popov and Prannoy succumbed 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 to eighth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
Malvika Bansod was beaten 18-21 15-21 by China's fifth seed Han Yue in women's singles at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
India's campaign ended in women's doubles too as Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 22-20 22-24 21-23 against seventh seeds Li Yijing and Luo Xumin of China in 84 minutes.
But Lakshya overcame Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 21-11 in the second round to be the only Indian alive in singles.
'Plans worked'
"At the start of the opening game I was struggling with my rhythm a bit and was lifting short and that allowed him to attack more. But then I started lifting the shuttle longer and focused on defending well and I think that turned the first game," Lakshya said after his match.
"In the second game, I knew I could not give him the opportunity to keep playing his game, so mixed my speed and it worked."
The 24-year-old Lakshya will now taken on Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-Yi, who beat Ireland's Nhat Nguyen 21-16, 21-17.