World number 8 Lakshya Sen crashed out of the Indonesia Open after losing to compatriot HS Prannoy in an all-India second round match here on Wednesday.
In a men’s singles match that lasted more than half an hour, Sen was defeated by Prannoy 10-21, 9-21.
Sen, who has been in red hot form, won his maiden Super 500 title this year. The 20-year-old reached the final of the prestigious All England Open and was also part of the Indian men’s team that lifted the historic Thomas Cup crown. Interestingly, this was Prannoy’s first win against Sen in three one-on-one meetings so far.
East Ventures Indonesia Open 2022
MS – Round of 32
21 21 HS Prannoy
109 Lakshya Sen
in 34 minutes
https://t.co/K9KmJcNxBE
— bwfscore (@BWFScore) June 15, 2022
In the doubles match, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila opened their account with a win as they defeated the high-ranked Japanese pair of Kelichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takuchi 27-25, 18-25, 21-19.
However, it was only 28 minutes for the women’s pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam to lose 9-21, 10-21 to their Chinese counterparts Zhang Shu Jian and Zheng Yu.
The campaign also came to an end for another women’s pair of Harita M Harinarayan and Aashna Noy as both lost in straight games against their strong South Korean counterparts Jeong Na Eun and Kim Hee Jeong. In the Sen vs Prannoy game, it was no match against the former uber-aggressive Prannoy, who despite being 3-6 behind at one point, made a strong comeback with some good shots. The 29-year-old eventually extended his lead to 21-10 and won the first game. In the second game, Prannoy continued from where he had left off and took a massive 11-3 lead.
Trailing Sen was expected to make a comeback, but Prannoy’s cross-court smash created problems for Prannoy.