New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) World championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen progressed to the men’s singles summit clash with a thrilling win but it was curtains for two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open here on Saturday.
The 20-year-old Sen rallied his way to a 19-21 21-16 21-12 win over world number 60 Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong to enter his maiden World Tour Super 500 summit clash.
Sen, seeded third, will face reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the summit clash on Sunday in a repeat of Dutch Open final last year.
In the men’s doubles, world number 10 pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy cruised to a 21-10 21-18 win over France duo of William Villeger and Fabien Delrue to make it to the finals.
Chirag and Satwik will square off against three-time world champion Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan from Indonesia on Sunday.
In other results, Indian women’s doubles pair of Haritha Manazhiyil Harinarayan and Ashna Roy lost 12-21 9-21 to fourth seeded Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand.
On Sunday, Sen will be itching to set the record straight after losing the Dutch Open final to Loh. Overall, the duo has a 2-2 head-to-head record with Sen losing two of the last three meetings.
Sindhu, who had beaten Katethong at the Indonesia Masters last year, however, couldn’t summon her best against an opponent ranked 33rd in the world.
The decider started as a close affair but Katethong soon eked out a slender 9-7 lead before entering the interval at 11-7.
Katethong was precise with her return and water-tight in her defence, attributes which helped her to move to 16-9 lead, before grabbing massive eight match points and sealed it when Sindhu went long again. (PTI)
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