Indonesia Open: Indian challenge over as Lakshya Sen loses

Jakarta: India's challenge at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament ended after star shuttler Lakshya Sen bowed out in the quarterfinals of the men's singles event here on Friday.

Sen, ranked 14th in the world, fought hard before going down 22-24, 18-21 to world No. 5 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a match that lasted 61 minutes. Antonsen now enjoys a 3-2 head-to-head record against the Indian.

It was a see-saw battle between Sen and Antonsen in the first game which the Dane pocketed in 32 minutes. There was nothing to separate the two shuttlers till the end as both matched each other before Antonsen prevailed.

Antonsen took an early 4-0 lead but a determined Sen fought hard to level the scores 5-5 and then extended it to 15-11.

But the Dane was not to be left behind as he used his reach and tired out Sen with long rallies to draw level at 16-16.

The two players fought tooth and nail till 22 points before the Indian faltered to hand the first game to his opponent.

The neck-and-neck fight continued in the second game with both the shuttlers in no mood to give an inch to each other.

Both Sen and Antonsen played their hearts out till 18 points in the second game. But eventually, Sen committed a few unforced errors and Antonsen kept his cool to pocket three straight points and seal the issue.

Sen had got the better of Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-9, 21-15 in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday as the rest of the Indian shuttlers bowed out.

Priyansh Rajawat fought well against Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand, the reigning world champion, before losing 10-21, 17-21 in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down to Japan's Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 19-21, 19-21 after an intense round-of-16 match in the women's doubles.

Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa were beaten by South Korea's Ha Na Baek and So-Hee Lee 21-13, 19-21, 21-13.

The mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy were ousted by China's Siwei Zheng and Yaqiong Huang 21-9, 21-11 in a lop-sided contest.