Denmark Open 2022 badminton: Lakshya Sen bests HS Prannoy to make quarter-finals
Lakshya Sen beat HS Prannoy 21-9, 21-18 while Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also won in doubles. Kidambi Srikanth lost to Loh Kean Yew.
India’s Lakshya Sen and the pair of Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy advanced to the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open 2022 at the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense, Denmark on Thursday.
Lakshya Sen beat compatriot HS Prannoy - currently the top-ranked player on the BWF World Tour - 21-9, 21-18 in what was the two Indians’ fifth clash against each other. Lakshya now leads the head-to-head 3-2.
The Commonwealth Games 2022 champion was in top form from the start, placing the shuttles precisely as Prannoy struggled with his returns. Lakshya Sen then broke out his trademark cross-court smashes to finish the first game early.
HS Prannoy was more competitive in the second game and went toe-to-toe with Lakshya Sen aided by a solid defence. The 30-year-old led 11-10 heading into the mid-game break.
The duo traded points and long rallies before Lakshya Sen took a crucial 19-17 lead and finished off the match with another cross-court winner in an engrossing encounter.
Lakshya Sen will now either face Japan’s Kodai Naraoka or Lu Guang Zu of China in the quarter-final.
Meanwhile, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out in the round of 16 after losing 21-13, 21-15 to former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
Kidambi Srikanth was the dominant player in the early exchanges but Loh clawed his way back through the rallies and took the opening game.
The Singaporean raced away to a 17-8 lead in the second game before Kidambi won seven points in a row. But it was too late to turn the tables for the Indian as Loh Kean Yew wrapped up the win comfortably.
In the men’s doubles, seventh seeds Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy dominated All England champions Muhammad Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia and won their men’s doubles match 21-14, 21-16.
The duo will now take on fourth-seeded Malaysians and reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the last eight.
Chirag and Satwik had won their maiden BWF World Championships medal, a bronze, after losing to the Malaysians in the semi-finals this year.
Two other Indian pairs at the Denmark Open 2022 were eliminated in the round of 16 stage.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto, who had stunned the world No. 15 pair in the previous round, lost 21-16, 21-10 to Olympic and world championships medallists Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan.
In the women’s doubles, CWG 2022 bronze-medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 23-21, 21-13 to sixth-seeded Thai pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajonjai.