Birmingham, March 13: India’s Lakshya Sen stunned world no. 2 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in straight games in a superlative display to enter the men’s singles quarterfinals of the All England Championships here on Thursday.
Lakshya just took 36 minutes to beat Christie 21-13, 21-10 in a one-sided contest.
The win reduced Lakshay’s head-to-head record against Christie to 3-4.
This was the first time Lakshya played Christie, seeded third in this event, after the Paris Olympics.
Lakshya dominated Christie from the word go in a fluent show of skills.
The Indian used his energy and superb court coverage to fox the Indonesian and raced to a narrow 11-7 lead at the break in the first game.
But after the break Christie tried to forge his way back into the contest latching on Lakshya’s unforced errors to bring it level to 12-12.
Thereafter, Lakshya upped his game as Christie struggled as the Indian forced his way into the quarterfinals with consummate ease.
Malvika ousted
Even as Lakshya stormed into the quarterfinals, India’s women’s singles campaign ended with Malvika Bansod losing in straight games against two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
The world no. 3 Yamaguchi hardly broke a sweat to get the better of world no.28 Malvika 21-16, 21-13 in a contest that lasted just 33 minutes.
Yamaguchi has now extended her head-to-head record against Malvika to 4-0.
Malvika struggled to adjust to the conditions, repeatedly hitting wide, long, and into the net to fall behind early.
Earlier on Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the women’s singles event.
Satwik-Chirag concedes match
Seventh seed Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty conceded their pre-quarterfinal match against Hao Nan Xie and Wei Han Zeng of China midway after the Indian pair was trailing 16-21, 2-2 due to a past back injury of Chirag that flared up.
Earlier, the Indian pair had advanced to the second round, registering a straight-game victory over Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.
Satwik, making his return after the loss of his father last month, and Chirag delivered an impressive performance, winning 21-17, 21-15 in 40 minutes late Wednesday.
India’s campaign ends in mixed doubles
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also crashed out in the round of 16, losing to fifth seeded Chinese pair of Zhe FENG Yan and Xin WEI Ya 10-21, 12-21. (PTI)
