Indonesia Masters: Lakshya Sen advances to quarterfinals

• Lakshya Sen beats NG Tze Yong to reach the quarterfinals.
• Nehwal is knocked out in second round of women’s singles competition.
• He will face fourth-seeded Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the last eight.

Saina Nehwal was eliminated in the second round of the women’s singles competition on Thursday, while Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles quarterfinals in the Indonesia Masters Super 500 competition.

Seventh-seeded Sen overcame a game deficit to defeat Malaysia’s NG Tze Yong in the round of 16—a rematch of the Commonwealth Games championship—by scores of 19-21, 21-8, and 21-17.

Both shuttlers were evenly matched in the opening rallies, and the first game was knotted at 13 all before Malaysian took the lead and won it. Lakshya, though, recovered and won the second game to tie the match at one game each.

The final game was closer, and the Indian shuttler needed to win the final three points straight to guarantee her place in the round of eight.

Lakshya will face fourth-seeded Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the round. This will be the pair’s second encounter and their first since the Indian won in tough straight sets in the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships.

Saina, on the other hand, was eliminated in the second round after losing to Chinese shuttler Yue Han, the eighth-seed, 15-21, 7-21.

Later on in the day, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will face Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto of Indonesia in the women’s doubles round of 16 match.

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