In the pre-quarterfinals of the Arctic Open badminton tournament, star Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen lost to Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei after initially leading by one game. The 23-year-old fought diligently for one hour 10 minutes before losing 21-19 18-21 15-21 to the seventh seeded player in the Super 500 tournament’s second round.
Arctic Open 2024: Tough day for Indian shuttlers as all lose their respective matches
India had a difficult day with all their shuttlers losing their respective matches, bringing their challenge to an end. Indian qualifier Kiran George, who achieved victory over Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei on Wednesday, was beaten 17-21 8-21 by fifth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the men’s singles event.
Malvika Bansod conceded defeat to Ratchanok Intanon with scores of 15-21 and 8-21 in the women’s singles match. Unnati Hooda and Aakarshi Kashyap both suffered defeats in their round of 16 matches.
Unnati suffered a 10-21, 19-21 defeat against Michelle Li of Canada, while Aakarshi was beaten 9-21 8-21 by second seed Han Yue from China.
Also read: Arctic Open Badminton: Lakshya Sen, Kiran George enter pre-quarters
Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath, the mixed doubles pair, were defeated by the Chinese duo of Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi with a score of 12-21 15-21. In the last Indian match of the day, Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda lost 8-21 10-21 to top seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the women’s doubles match.
Arctic Open 2024: Lakshya Sen loses to Chou Tien Chen in a hard-fought encounter
During the pre-quarters, the 19th ranked player in the world, Lakhshya, lost to Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei, who is ranked 10th and seeded 7th, with a score of 19-21, 21-18, 21-15 in one hour and 10 minutes.
Lakshya, who had not played since missing out on an Olympic medal in Paris 2024 in August, matched the seventh seeded opponent at the start of the match. The Indian gained momentum to lead by 13-7 but his opponent fought back to level the scores at 15-15 and take lead. However, Lakshya won final four points to win the first game.
Also read: Arctic Open: PV Sindhu exits; Malvika Bansod enters pre-quarters
In the second game, Lakshya was ahead 9-5 but gave away the lead and his opponent tied the game at 13-13. In the end, the Indian completely lost his rhythm in the final game, which was significantly more one-sided.
Lakshya has now lost to Chou for the fourth time in six matches. During their quarterfinal clash at the Paris Olympics, Lakshya had come out victorious.
Earlier, Lakshya, who had returned to competing on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour, was given a walkover in the first round when his 28th ranked Danish opponent Rasmus Gemke pulled out of the tournament.
Other than Lakshya, Indian qualifier Kiran George was also defeated by Indonesia’s reigning Asian champion Jonatan Christie 21-17, 21-8 in the pre-quarters. Kiran entered the game after defeating higher-ranked Wang Tzu Wei in the previous round.
