Jakarta, Jan 23: Star India shuttler Lakshya Sen extended his struggling run on the international circuit with a loss in the second round of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
The 10th-ranked Indian went down against Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 16-21 21-12 21-23.
Earlier in the day, mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanshia Crasto squandered an early lead to go down 21-18 15-21 19-21 against Malaysia’s Pang Ron Hoo and Su Yin Cheng in the second round.
Sen, an Asian Games silver medallist and Commonwealth Games gold winner, made a poor start to the match as he lost the first game.
The Indian’s famed defence was ably tackled by the lower-ranked Nishimoto as he took a 9-3 lead and never looked back, despite Sen trying to make a comeback at 10-11. But Nishimoto employed fast rallies and closed out the first game comfortably.
Sen made a fast start to the second game and raced to a 6-3 lead with an aggressive smash.
Nishimoto opted for long rallies to tire out Sen but the Indian’s smart strokeplay handed him a 11-6 lead at the break.
Nishimoto then committed plenty of errors at the net as Sen’s retrieving capacity was on full display to extend his lead to 16-8.
The Japanese was troubled by the drift as Sen picked up points at will to close out the second game at 21-12 and force the match into the decider.
With change of sides, it was then Sen’s turn to struggle as Nishimoto raced to a 5-1 lead in the decider.
But a calm and composed Sen kept up up with his opponent till 7-7.
Sen took the lead for the first time in the decider with a jump smash but committed errors due to the drift to trail 9-11 at the final break of the tie and never really got his footing into the match.
Later in the day, women’s doubles pair of Crasto and seasoned Ashwini Ponnappa will be up against Malaysian combination of Pei Kee Go and Mei Xing Teoh.
The star Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will also play Thailand’s Kittinupong Kedren and Dechapol Puavaranukroh later in the evening.
On Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and upcoming men’s singles player Priyansh Rajawat crashed out in the opening round. (PTI)
