The Thomas Cup sensation and star India shuttler Lakshya Sen launched a fightback before going down to Chinese Taipei rival Chou Tien Cben in the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 tournament on Friday.
The World Championships bronze medallist bounced back from behind to level the second game but the third-seed from Chinese Taipei was superior in the decider with a 21-16 12-21 21-14 scoreline in his favour after an intriguing battle that lasted more than an hour.
This was Sen's second straight defeat against Chou in less than a month. Sen lost to his Chinese Taipei rival 19-21 21-13 17-21 during the group stage of the Thomas Cup, before turning it around to script a historic triumph.
The 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, who had defeated the Indian in the group stage of the Thomas Cup in their only previous meeting, put up a power-packed show in the decider and mounted early pressure on the 20-year-old.
The world No. 4 from Chinese Taipei annexed three points in a row to build a six-point lead midway into the decider.
Sen was engaged in some superb rallies towards the end and even saved two match points but his valiant effort was not good enough as the experienced 32-year-old maintained his lead to make it a 2-0 in head-to-head against the Indian. PV Sindhu will play her quarter-final against Ratchanok Intanon, later in the day.
Indian shuttlers were on a roll on Thursday as after Thomas Cup sensation Lakshya Sen, Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist PV Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament.
Sen registered a 21-18, 21-15 win over world no.13 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in 54 minutes in the men's singles. Meanwhile in the women's singles, Sindhu was made to toil hard for over an hour by Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia before winning 23-21, 20-22, 21-11 in the second round.
A tough quarterfinal awaits fourth seeded Sindhu as she will take on the winner of the match between Thailand's fifth seed Ratchanok Intanon and Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland.
Against the unseeded Tunjung, Sindhu started on a bright note and played aggressively to surge to a 10-5 lead. She used her experience and reach to engage her opponents in long rallies initially.
But the Indonesian, whom Sindhu had defeated six times earlier, made a remarkable fightback to claw her way back into the contest to level the scores at 15 apiece.
From there on, it was a neck-and-neck fight between the two players as they traded points till 21 before Sindhu raised her level to pocket the first game.
The decider, however, was a one-sided affair as after a few initial exchanges, to be precise till seven points, Sindhu didn't allow her opponent an inch and used her big match experience to run away with the game and the match.
