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File image of Indian singles shuttler Lakshya Sen. (Photo courtesy: BAI)
Top-ranked Indian men’s singles shuttler Lakshya Sen progressed to the quarterfinals with a straight-games win over Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh at Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 in Kumamoto City on Thursday. Lakshya, however, is the last standing Indian at the tournament after HS Prannoy fell at the round of 16 hurdle.
Lakshya, seeded seventh here, prevailed over world No. 20 Teh 21-13 21-11 in a 39-minute contest. The world No.15 Lakshya will clash with former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarterfinals. However, later in the day, Prannoy, 33, went down 18-21 15-21 to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in a 46-minute second-round match.
The last time Lakshya had met Jason Teh was at the final of the Syed Modi Super 300 last year in December, and the Singaporean bore the brunt of a red-hot opponent on the other side, buoyed by the Lucknow crowd and a desire to finish the season strongly after the disapppointment of Paris Olympics. After being blown away 6-21, 7-21 by Lakshya, Jason Teh had said: “I just couldn’t keep up with his pace, his attacks… I just couldn’t retrieve some of his shots and in that situation, it is not easy playing him. And even in 2nd game, when I had my chances, his defence was quite good.” But Lakshya has blown hot and cold this year, and hasn’t always seemed in top form on the BWF World Tour circuit.
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On Thursday, Jason Teh started the match as if he had learned the lesson from the defeat last year, playing a sharp high-tempo rally and putting away a kill at the net. But Lakshya took the sting off early, displaying great touch at the net and opened up a 8-5 lead with a lengthy exchange. With the ever-animated Kim Ji Hyun – former coach of PV Sindhu – egging him on, Jason Teh edged ahead at 10-9 but Lakshya went into the interval ahead by one point. From 14-13, however, Lakshya raced through the remainder of the opener with seven straight points and took the lead in the blink of an eye.
The second game was a much more comfortable outing for Lakshya. A sensational rally that saw Lakshya scramble around the court to keep the shuttle alive, even guessing right from a Jason Teh smash to play a defensive block, made it 1-1 in Game 2. After that Lakshya didn’t trail in the rest of the match. The Indian’s movement was sharp and he was taking the shuttle early whenever possible to keep his world No 20 opponent pinned on his backfoot.
In the quarterfinal, Lakshya will once more be up against Kim Ji Hyun on the coaching chair as he faces a familar opponent in Loh Kean Yew, the the third seed who actually trails 3-6 in the Head-to-Head. The two haven’t met sine March 2024, though.
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