US Open: Lakshya Sen marches into semis; Sindhu exits

Council Bluffs (US): Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu suffered a straight-game defeat to crash out in the quarterfinals, but Lakshya Sen marched into the last-four stage of the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Friday.

Sindhu, ranked 12th in the world and seeded third, was stunned 20-22, 13-21 by 24-year-old Gao Fang Jie of China in women's singles, while Lakshya defeated S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian 21-10, 21-17 in an all-Indian clash.

Lakshya will face second seed Li Shi Feng of China in the semifinals. The Indian enjoys a 5-3 win-loss ratio against Feng.

Olympic medallist Sindhu appeared to be fighting hard against her Chinese opponent, ranked 36th in the world, but her inability to win long rallies proved crucial in the opening game.

Sindhu was overpowered in the second as Fang Jie upped her game and gave little room to the Indian to approach the net and play her drop shots.

Sindhu had defeated Korea's Sung Shuo Yun to secure a place in the quarterfinals.

Third seed Lakshya easily got the better of promising 19-year-old Sankar from Chennai.

Lakshya was extremely confident in his rallies and it showed in the final match statistics as he won 42 rallies while Sankar could manage only 27 in a contest that lasted 38 minutes.