Lakshya Sen on Thursday became the youngest Indian male shuttler to reach the All England Championship quarterfinals, where Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu joined him with an easy win in the second round.
Sindhu, the reigning World champion, recorded a dominant 21-8, 21-8 win over Denmark’s Line Christophersen in 25 minutes. Sindhu will take on Japan’s third seed Akane Yamaguchi for a place in the semifinals.
Earlier, the 19-year-old Lakshya saw off France’s Thomas Rouxel 21-18, 21-16 to set up a clash with Dutchman Mark Caljouw.
However, it was curtains for H.S. Prannoy and B. Sai Praneeth. Prannoy couldn’t find his way across World No. 1 Kento Momota, going down 15-21, 14-21 before Praneeth squandered a first-game advantage to lose 21-15, 12-21, 12-21 to second seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Also ousted were the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Saina Nehwal was forced to concede her opening match after suffering an injury. Saina, troubled by her right thigh, quit while trailing Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark 8-21, 4-10.
The results:
Men: Second round: Lakshya Sen bt Thomas Rouxel (Fra) 21-18 21-16; Kento Momota (Jpn) bt H.S. Prannoy 21-15, 21-14; Viktor Axelsen (Den) bt B. Sai Praneeth 15-21, 21-12, 21-12.
First round: B. Sai Praneeth bt Toma Junior Popov (Fra) 21-18, 22-20; Lakshya bt Kantaphon Wangcharoen (Tha) 21-18, 21-12; Sameer Verma bt Ygor Coelho (Bra) 21-11, 21-19.
Women:Second round: P.V. Sindhu bt Line Christophersen (Den) 21-8, 21-8; First round: Mia Blichfeldt (Den) bt Saina Nehwal 21-8, 10-4 retd.;
Doubles: First round: Alexandra Boje & Mette Poulsen (Den) bt J. Meghana & Poorvisha S. Ram 21-10, 21-15.
Mixed doubles: First round: Yuki Kaneko & Misaki Matsutomo (Jpn) bt Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Ashwini Ponnappa 21-19, 21-9; Rasmus Espersen & Christine Busch (Den) bt Pranaav Jerry Chopra & N. Sikki Reddy 21-15, 21-17.
