Lakshya Sen goes down fighting against Jonatan Christie in QFs

JAKARTA [INDONESIA]: Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered defeat against world No.3 Jonatan Christie in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Indonesia Masters 2023 BWF Super 500 tournament in Jakarta on Friday.

The 12th in the BWF world rankings Lakshya Sen produced a valiant effort but eventually went down to local favourite Jonatan Christie 21-15, 10-21, 13-21 in a match that lasted for 61 minutes. This was Sen's first loss against Christie in his second match-up.

Both players started out with strong rallies, but Lakshya Sen had a stronger defence and led Christie 11-8 at the first mid-game break. The Indian badminton player used his advantage to win the first game with ease.

Jonatan Christie used a deft combination of backhand and forehand shots to shift the momentum in his favour following the change of ends. Lakshya Sen continued to challenge Jonatan Christie in extended rallies in the final, but Christie, who had more energy to spare, led Sen 11-6 at the half.

After the break, the Indian badminton player scored four straight points to cut the deficit to one. Lakshya Sen, however, succumbed to exhaustion as Jonatan Christie ended the match with accurate crosscourt smashes.

Earlier on Thursday, Sen progressed to the men's singles quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters 2023 BWF Super 500 tournament. The seventh-seeded Lakshya Sen came from behind against Malaysia's NG Tze Yong, the world No. 28 in the latest badminton rankings, to win his round-of-16 match 19-21, 21-8, 21-17.