New Delhi: Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen produced a commanding performance to reach the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the USD 475,000 Hylo Open Super 500 tournament in Saarbrücken, Germany, on Wednesday. The 2021 World Championships bronze medallist stunned fifth seed Christo Popov of France in straight games, winning 21-16, 22-20 in the opening round.
Lakshya, who recently finished runner-up at the Hong Kong Open, showed excellent control and composure against the higher-ranked Frenchman to advance to the next round. He will now face compatriot S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, who edged past Malaysia’s Jun Hao Leong 21-14, 18-21, 21-16 in a hard-fought encounter.
Meanwhile, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth’s campaign came to an early end after a straight-games loss to fellow Indian Kiran George. Srikanth went down 19-21, 11-21 in just 37 minutes. George, who looked sharp throughout the contest, will next take on eighth seed Toma Junior Popov of France, who prevailed over England’s Harry Huang 21-17, 19-21, 21-19.
In women’s singles, unseeded Shriyanshi Valishetty pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the day, defeating third seed Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21-19, 21-12 in just 33 minutes. Joining her in the round of 16 is youngster Rakshitha Santhosh Ramraj, who registered a comfortable 21-14, 21-16 victory over Spain’s Clara Azurmendi. The two Indians will now face each other in an all-Indian second-round clash.
However, Anmol Kharb’s spirited effort fell short against Denmark’s eighth seed Julie Dawall Jakobsen. Despite pushing both games to the wire, Kharb lost 24-26, 21-23 in her opening-round match.
With Lakshya, Sankar Muthusamy, Valishetty, and Rakshitha all advancing, India will have strong representation in both men’s and women’s singles as the Hylo Open heads into its second round.
