Badminton: Sen sizzles, then fizzles against Dan

New Delhi: Lakshya Sen reaffirmed his status as a rising talent as he gave legendary Lin Dan a scare before losing in three games at the Auckland Open badminton championship on Thursday.

Up against two-time Olympic champion Dan, 17-year-old Lakshya gave a fantastic account of himself by pocketing the first game but eventually lost out on experience.

The Chinese calmly clawed back into the game to win the encounter 15-21, 21-15, 21-12 in a marathon second round men’s singles match that lasted one hour and seven minutes.

“Good Match against the Legend Lin Dan......Gave my best shot!! have realised that i still have a long way to go!! I would like to thank all the coaches of Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, OGQ, SAI for their support,” Lakshya tweeted after the match.

Third seed B. Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma however won their respective matches to enter the quarter-finals. Praneeth defeated Malaysia’s Darren Liew 21-18, 21-7, while fifth seed Verma got the better of Cheuk Yiu Lee of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-19.

But Ajay Jayram lost to Kwang Hee Heo of Korea 21-15, 20-22, 6-21.

Sai Praneeth next faces Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka but Verma has a tough task on hand against Lin Dan.

In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy, seeded fifth, entered the quarter-finals with 21-9, 21-12 win over Thailand’s Pakin Kuna-Anuvit and Natthapat Trinkajee. But Meghana Jakkampudi and S. Ram Poorvisha crashed out in the women’s event second round, losing 5-21, 6-21 to top seeds Della Destiara Haris and Rizki Amelia Pradipta of Indonesia.     

It was also curtains for India in the mixed doubles with Shivam Sharma-Poorvisha and Rohan Kapoor-Kuhoo Garg losing in the second round.