Indonesia Masters: Lakshya Sen loses to Jonatan Christie, bows out in quarterfinals

Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen crashed out of Indonesia’s Master Super 500 badminton tournament after losing to world No.3 Jonatan Christie in the quarterfinals here on Friday.

Sen went down to local favorite Jonatan Christie 21-15, 10-21, 13-21 in 61 minutes of play. This was the Indian shuttler’s first loss against Christie in their second meeting.

Both players engaged in high-quality rallies from the start but it was the Indian who went into the first mid-game break with an 11-8 lead. He built on his lead to take the first game convincingly. After the change of ends, Christie turned the table in his favour with a clever mix of backhand and forehand shots and force the match into the decider.

In the deciding game, Sen continued to trouble Christie by engaging him in longer rallies but the Indonesian, with more energy in the bank, led Sen 11-6 at the time of the break.

Sen produced a few good winners and reduced the deficit with four straight points post-interval. The fatigue, however, caught up with him as Christie sealed the match with his deadly crosscourt smashes.

Later in the day, the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto will take on Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.

-IANS

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