Indian badminton stars Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu both advanced to the pre-quarters of the Indonesian Masters as they racked up rather contrasting wins against their Danish opponents.
Lakshya Sen defeated Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-10, 21-18 in the Masters tournament being held at the Istora Senayan arena in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The boy from Almora dispatched the Dane expertly in straight sets to advance to the subsequent round of the competition.
With his latest win against the world rank 21 Dane, Sen has extended his head to head record against Vittinghus to three and nothing.
Sen, who gave the Indian team a winning start at the final of the Thomas Cup won 42 of the 70 points played and had a streak of 10 consecutive points against Vittinghus as he closed out the match in 38 minutes without any hassle.
There was good news from the women’s contingent at the competition too for team India as PV Sindhu got the better of Danish shuttler Line Christophersen 18-21, 21-15, 21-11 in the Round of 32 tie in Jakarta.
Sindhu lost the first game of the fixture to Christophersen by a narrow margin. But, the Indian ace from Hyderabad came back strongly to win the following two games and round off a victory that sealed her place in the round of 16.
Sindhu found it a bit challenging to get to grips with the conditions in the opening set of her fixture against Christophersen, and after dropping the first game, Sindhu fought back in the second with a win as she pulled clear from 11 each to force the decider in the third game.
The Indian asserted her dominance in the third and final game as she closed the game against world rank 22 Christophersen, who had already lost twice in both her previous encounters against the Hyderabadi.
Sindhu’s win also took her to a 4-0 record against the Danish shuttler in a match that lasted about 50 minutes.
The pair from India was expected to spearhead the nation’s challenge for a title in Jakarta going into the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Aakarshi Kashyap lost to world No. 16 Beiwen Zhang of the USA 12-21, 11-21. Sameer Verma also crashed out of men’s singles after losing to Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 21-17, 21-15.
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