India Open: Indian challenge comes to an end

New Delhi: The Indian challenge at the India Open 2023 came to an end on Thursday after defending champion Lakshya Sen and former champion Saina Nehwal suffered contrasting defeats in their respective second round matches at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, here.

Sen won the opening game of the men's singles contest but Denmark's Rasmus Gemke fought back by engaging the Indian in long rallies to win 21-16-,15-21-,18-21 in the BWF World Tour Super 750 event, organised by the Badminton Association of India.

Later, Saina lost to Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China 9-21-, 12-21 in the women's singles second round clash.

Viktor Axelsen got the better of China's Shi Yu Qi 21-16, 16-21, 21-9 earlier in the day.

Also advancing to the next round were fourth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia, third seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore and fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in men's singles and top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, Spaniard Carolina Marin and He Bingjiao of China in women's singles.

Meanwhile, Indian challenge in doubles events came to an end with defending champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty giving a walkover in their second round match due to an injury to the former. The other Indian men's doubles combination of Vishnuvardhan Goud and Krishna Prasad and women's doubles pairing of Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down to their higher ranked opponents.

Treesa and Gayatri saved four match points but could not avoid a 21-9, 21-16 loss to sixth seeds Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China while Krishna and Vishuvardhan lost to China's Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 14-21, 10-21.