All England Open: Lakshya Sen advances to quarterfinals, ‘Sat-Chi’ retire hurt

BIRMINGHAM: Lakshya Sen advanced into the quarterfinals of the ongoing All England Open, knocking out the defending champion and third-seed, Jonatan Christie, in the pre-quarterfinals clash at Birmingham on Thursday.

In his round of 16 clash, Lakshya dismantled Jonatan in a one-sided clash by 21-13, 21-10 in successive games to make it to the final eight stage of the competition.

Meanwhile, after two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu was eliminated in the opening round, India’s challenge in women’s singles has finally come to an end with Malvika Bansod crashing out, losing to third-seed Akane Yamaguchi 21-16, 21-13 in her round-of-16 match.

Sindhu, 16th in the women’s singles badminton rankings, went down to world number 21 Kim Ga Eun with a 21-19, 13-21, 13-21 scoreline in a contest that lasted 61 minutes.

In the men’s doubles competition, the popular pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had to bow out in the round of 16 after the duo chose to retire due to an injury. This gave their Chinese opponents, Xie HN and Zeng WH, a walkover.

In the mixed doubles competition, Rohan Kapoor & Ruthvika Gadde delivered a tough fight against 5th seeds Feng Yan Zhe & Wei Ya Xin but could not break through as they lost by 10-21, 12-21.

The All England Open is the most prestigious tournament on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour calendar, with only two Indians, Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, having won it in the singles competition. (ANI)