Thomas Cup sensation and World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced to the men's singles quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament by defeating Denmark's Rasmus Gemke in straight games on Thursday. Sen downed World number thirteen Gemke 21-18, 21-15 in a match which lasted for 54 minutes.
The 20-year-old from Almora, seeded seventh, will next be pitted against Chinese Taipei's third seed Chou Tien Chen, who had defeated the Indian in a three-game thriller during the Thomas Cup last month in their only meeting.
Playing Gemke for the first time in his international career, world number 9 Sen showed better nerves as he limited his errors and fought his way to a fine win.
Sen overturned a 0-3 deficit to a 9-6 advantage, only to allow Gemke to hold a slender 11-10 cushion at the break. However, the Indian came out all guns blazing and reeled off six straight points to move to 16-12 before sealing the opening game.
Sen and Gemke breathed down each other's neck for most part of the second game as lead exchanged hands frequently before the Indian once again stepped ahead from 13-12 to close out the issue with a four-point burst.
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu will face Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, while the mixed doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on second seeds Chinese Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong later in the day.
Earlier on Wednesday, India's top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sen recorded contrasting victories to make a positive start to their respective women’s and men’s singles campaign. While World Championship bronze medallist Sen outwitted Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-10, 21-18, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu had to toil hard to get the better off Line Christophersen of Denmark 18-21, 21-15, 21-11 in a 51-minute match.
Aakarshi Kashyap went down 12-21, 11-21 to Beiwen Zhang of the US in under 30 minutes. On a comeback trail after recovering from an injury, Sameer Verma couldn’t put his best foot forward, losing 17-21, 15-21 to Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo.
The mixed pairing of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto produced a gallant fight before losing 14-21, 21-16, 12-21 to fourth seeds Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia in an opening round match. Sindhu, a former world champion, came into the match with a 3-0 head-to-head record against Line but she blew a 11-9 advantage to lose the opening game, primarily due to her unforced errors.
In the second game too, Sindhu squandered a 3-0 lead but Line too couldn’t grab the opportunity. The Danish world No. 22 played some superb cross-court smashes but errors put paid to her hopes.
