Satwik-Chirag pull out of India Open; Sen loses

New Delhi: Defending champion Lakshya Sen suffered a heartbreak, going down narrowly to world number 20 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the second round at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open here on Thursday.

World no. 12 Sen reduced a 8-14 deficit in the decider to 13-14 after losing the second game but couldn’t go the distance, losing 21-16 15-21 18-21 to Gemke in a match that lasted an hour and 21 minutes at the IG stadium.

Reigning champions in men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who had come into the tournament after a semifinal finish at Malaysia Super 1000 last week, withdrew from the tournament after the former suffered a hip injury ahead of their second-round clash.

London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal also found the going tough against Olympic champion Chen Yufei, surrendering meekly 9-21 12-21 in just 32 minutes to draw curtains on India’s campaign at the Super 750 tournament.

Earlier, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lost 9-21 16-21 to sixth-seeded Chinese Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu in women’s doubles pre-quarterfinals.

The rising men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala also was no match for China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, going down 14-21 10-21 in 33 minutes.

Sen was favourite to win the match, having won the last two encounters against Gemke but the Indian couldn’t find his ‘A’ game when it mattered as the Dane showed better alertness and control to come up trumps. Sen produced some sensational smashes and soft taps at the net to zoom ahead at 17-12 after the two were locked 9-9 at one stage.