World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen progressed to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament with a straight-game win over Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke on Thursday.
The 20-year-old from Almora, who was part of the Indian team that claimed a historic Thomas Cup title triumph in Bangkok, prevailed 21-18 21-15 over world number 13 Gemke in 54 minutes.
Sen, seeded seventh, will next be pitted against Chinese Taipei’s third seed Chou Tien Chen, who had defeated the Indian in a three-game thriller during the Thomas Cup last month in their only meeting.
Playing Gemke for the first time in his international career, world number 9 Sen showed better nerves as he limited his errors and fought his way to a fine win.
Sen overturned a 0-3 deficit to a 9-6 advantage, only to allow Gemke to hold a slender 11-10 cushion at the break. However, the Indian came out all guns blazing and reeled off six straight points to move to 16-12 before sealing the opening game.
Sen and Gemke breathed down each other’s neck for the most part of the second game as the lead exchanged hands frequently before the Indian once again stepped ahead from 13-12 to close out the issue with a four-point burst.
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu will face Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, while the mixed doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on second seeds Chinese Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong later in the day.
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