Indonesia Masters badminton: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen enter QF; Sindhu takes on top seed Chen Yufei next

5 days ago 10

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PV Sindhu Lakshya Sen Indonesia Open PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen in action at the Indonesia Masters. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)

India’s leading singles players PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen entered the quarterfinals at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 in Jakarta after straight-games wins in the round of 16 on Thursday. But there were defeats for Srikanth Kidambi, Anmol Kharb and Hariharan Amsakarunan-MR Arjun in the day’s other pre-quarterfinal fixtures.

Sindhu, who began the season with an impressive semifinal run at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 before faltering in the first round at her home event in India last week, came through in straight games against Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 21-19, 21-18 in 43 minutes. Notably, this was Sindhu’s 500th career singles win (including matches at age-group international tournaments and team events). According to Badminton Ranks, she is now the sixth women’s singles player to achieve this feat and the first Indian to do so.

After a tight start, Sindhu pulled away to a 9-5 lead and stayed in front for the remainder of the opener despite the Dane threatening a couple of comebacks, first at 15-15 and then saving three game points from 16-20 down. In the second game, Kjaersfeldt had the upper hand at 9-7 but Sindhu, who fought back from 2-11 down in her opener on Wednesday, again showed good bouncebackability to reel off seven straight points and move towards the finish line. The world No 18 did close the gap down to one point at 13-14, but Sindhu held her lead from there to close the match out in straight games.

PV Sindhu advances to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters 2026. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)

Marathon jinx

The milestone win sets up a fascinating quarterfinal against top seed and World No. 4 Chen Yufei, in a rivalry that dates back to November 2015. Sindhu had the early advantage in this matchup against the Chinese allrounder three years younger to her. With her stunning semifinal dismantling of Chen (21-7, 21-14) during that famous week in Basel when she went on to become World Champion, Sindhu opened up a 6-3 lead in the first nine meetings.

But the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist has won all of their last four meetings. Interestingly, though, three of those four defeats for Sindhu have come in three-game marathons lasting 72, 92, and 75 minutes, respectively, and a common thread was that she was able to go toe-to-toe with Chen in all of those encounters but faltered in the endgame. But a rejuvenated, fitter Sindhu at the start of 2025 would be hoping for a different outcome in their 14th meeting on Friday at the iconic Istora Senayan.

Lakshya Sen in action at the Daihatsu Indonesia Masters 2026. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)

In men’s singles, Lakshya produced a near flawless performance against Hong Kong China’s Jason Gunawan to prevail 21-10, 21-11 in just 33 minutes. Gunawan had no answers to Lakshya’s speed of attacks right through the match, with the Indian taking control of the mid-court nicely and early. Lakshya will next face 2022 World Junior Championships bronze medallist Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in the quarterfinal. The Indian has a 1-0 Head-to-Head record against the 21-year-old Thai left-hander, who beat Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in three games on Thursday.

There was disappointment for one of India’s rising shuttlers as Anmol Kharb missed a golden opportunity to pull off an upset against former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara, going down 21-16, 14-21, 11-21. After playing some neat badminton to take the lead, Kharb lost control of the shuttle far too often, and Okuhara punished her for the mistakes. The Indian even closed the gap down to 10-12 in the decider but from there, her radar completely misfired in a flurry of unforced errors from the far side as Okuhara won the match on a run of 9 out of 10 points.

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In men’s singles, Srikanth was outplayed by fellow veteran Chou Tien Chen 11-21, 10-21 in 32 minute,s while in men’s doubles, third seeds Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Win got the better of Arjun and Hariharan 21-17, 9-21, 21-16.