Lakshya stuns Christie to enter quarterfinals

Highlights

Malvika loses to Yamaguchi

Birmingham: India’s Lakshya Sen stunned world no. 2 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in straight games in a superlative display to enter the men’s singles quarterfinals of the All England Championships here on Thursday.

Lakshya just took 36 minutes to beat Christie 21-13 21-10 in a one-sided con-test. The win reduced Lakshay’s head-to-head record against Christie to 3-4. This was the first time Lakshya played Christie, seeded third in this event, af-ter the Paris Olympics.

Lakshya dominated Christie from the word go in a fluent show of skills. The Indian used his energy and superb court coverage to fox the Indonesian and raced to a narrow 11-7 lead at the break in the first game.

But after the break Christie tried to forge his way back into the contest latching on Lakshya’s unforced errors to bring it level to 12-12. Thereafter, Lakshya upped his game as Christie struggled as the Indian forced his way into the quarterfinals with consummate ease.

Even as Lakshya stormed into the quarterfinals, India’s women’s singles cam-paign ended with Malvika Bansod losing in straight games against two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals. The world no. 3 Yamaguchi hardly broke a sweat to get the better of world no.28 Malvika 21-16 21-13 in a contest that lasted just 33 minutes. Yamaguchi has now extended her head-to-head record against Malvika to 4-0.

India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles competition, registering a straight-game victory over Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard. Returning to the court after his father’s loss last month, Satwik, along with his doubles partner Chirag, put on an impressive display, securing a 21-17, 21-15 win in just 40 minutes late Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the women’s singles event. (PTI)