Lakshya Sen makes shocking first-round exit

Lakshya Sen

On a day star shutter Lakshya Sen made a first-round exit, double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and veteran Kidambi Srikanth began with easy wins to advance into the pre-quarterfinals of the Asia Badminton Championship, here on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Sen, who took a short break to focus on his mental and physical health, was eliminated by World No. 7 Loh Kean Yew in a 7-21, 21-23 loss.

Having plummeted to 24th spot in the BWF rankings, Sen got a tough draw as he was pitted against former world champion and World No. 7.

Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also kept the Indian flag high by making the last-16.

Fresh from finishing runner-up at the Madrid Spain Masters, the former world champion, Sindhu defeated wen Chi Hsu 21-15, 22-20 in a 46-minute affair in the women's singles. Sindhu will face World No. 9 Han Yue of China in the pre-quarters.

Also Read: Defending champion Lakshya Sen loses; Satwik-Chirag pull out due to injury

Former World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth took 25 minutes to see off his first-round opponent Adnan Ebrahim 21-13, 21-8. He will face World No. 5 Kodai Naraoka in the men's singles last-16.

Treesa and Gayatri duo roared back from behind to defeat Indonesia's Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto 17-21, 21-17, 21-18 in a battle lasting more than an hour.

Mixed pair duo of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy also won their opening round match when they defeated Chan Peng Soon and Cheah Yee See of Malaysia 21-12, 21-16.

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