Lakshya Sen suffered a shock second-round defeat to USA’s Garret Tan to make an early exit but two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and fast-rising Ayush Shetty progressed to the pre-quarterfinals at the BWF World Championships here on Wednesday.
The fifth-seeded Indians, who have already won two bronze medals at the World Championships, had received a first-round bye and were scheduled to face Scotland’s Alexander Dunn and Adam Pringle in the second round. Sen, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, could not match USA’s former world Junior No.1 Garret Tan’s pace, attack and deception, losing 21-19 19-21 17-21 in the men’s singles round of 32.
Sen, who had taken little time off to address his wounded leg before addressing the media, said: “There were lot of dives, I stretched my leg, it was tough match.”
Sindhu, who is chasing an unprecedented sixth world championship medal, secured a 21-16 21-17 win over Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang to enter the last-16. The 2019 World Champion, seeded ninth, will face China’s third seed Wang Zhi Yi next. “It was a very tough match. I gave my all whatever I had in my tank. I was also exhausted physically in the third game. I will give a lot of credit to him, he played a solid game. I am little disappointed though I gave my all in the end but it wasn’t enough. “It is a big tournament, it would hurt probably more, but we have some big tournaments coming up, so will prepare for that. Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after receiving a walkover in their opening match.
He was just a better player today,” a crestfallen Sen said.
