Badminton: India’s Kidambi Srikanth & Lakshya Sen through to the quarterfinals

For the third consecutive week, the Indian top shuttlers have qualified into the last eight of the high-ranked tournaments.

On Thursday the 04th of November sixth seed Kidambi Srikanth was facing South Korean Lee Dong Keun and the former world no.1 who is regaining his previous best was off to a flying start taking the first game 21-9. The Indian was steadily paced to the second game and closed the match but the Korean fought back, winning the game 19-21, forcing the match to a third game. Srikanth regained his momentum and won the final game 21-10, closing the match in 56 minutes.

Lakshya Sen was up next against the fourth seed Wang Tzu Wei. The young Indian who had a brilliant outing in the French capital last week looked positive against Wang in the second round.

Similar to Srikanth, the world no.21 too got off to a winning start. Sen matched the more experienced Wang point-to-point throughout the match. Both the athletes played a fast game with high intensity, but the young Indian was better on the day as he edged past Wang and took the match 21-17, 21-15, closing the match in just under 40 minutes.

In other matches, Sourabh Verma who received a walkover in the first round was playing Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen. The eighth seed thumped the Indian in straight games, 13-21, 10-21.

In the quarterfinals, Srikanth is up against Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus and Lakshya Sen against Thailand’s Swiss Open 2021 finalist Kunlavut Vitidsarn.