PV Sindhu
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
Ace shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen cruised into the women’s and men’s singles quarterfinals of the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament with straight-game wins here. Third seed Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, defeated Korea’s Sung Shuo Yun 21-14, 21-12. Sen, who won the Canadian Open Super 500 title last week, beat Jan Loda of Czech Republic 21-8 23-21 in 39 minutes.
Sindhu didn’t have to sweat much against Sung. Sindhu took an early lead of 7-2 and then extended it to 13-5. Sung managed to narrow the gap to 11-14 but Sindhu then dashed her hopes of a comeback with her strong play. Sindhu faced a tough fight from Sung at the start of the second game. Sungune took a slight 5-3 lead but Sindhu leveled it at 7-7 and then took an 11-8 lead. After the score was 16-12, Sindhu scored five consecutive points to seal the match.
Lakshya Sen performed brilliantly in both the games
Lakshya Sen dominated the first game against the Czech player. He extended it to 17-5 after taking a 6-1 lead. After this, he did not have much trouble in winning this game. Sen, however, gave a tough fight from the 39-year-old in the second game. Zain surprised Sen by taking an 8-5 lead. He extended his lead to 19-14 but Sen made a stunning comeback after that. The Indian made some brilliant saves after leveling the scores at 19-19 to seal the match.
There will be a fight between Sen and Shankar
Sindhu will next take on China’s Gao Fang Jie, while the men’s singles clash will be between two Indians. Third seed Sen will take on 19-year-old S Shankar Muthusamy of Chennai. Shankar, a silver medalist at the World Junior Championships (2022), produced an impressive performance to win 21-18, 21-23, 21-13 over Misha Zilberman of Israel.