Former world champion PV Sindhu and Paris Olympic semi-finalist Lakshya Sen have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters after securing comfortable victories in their second-round matches. Sindhu defeated Line Kjaerfeldt of Denmark with a score of 21-19, 21-18 in 43 minutes, while Lakshya won against Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan with a score of 21-10, 21-11 in a match lasting over half an hour.
This marked Sindhu’s sixth victory over Kjaerfeldt in seven meetings, with her only loss occurring in last year’s Sudirman Cup. In the upcoming round, Sindhu is set to face tournament top seed and world No. 4 Chen Yu Fei of China. The two players have clashed 13 times previously, with Chen holding a slight 7-6 lead in their overall head-to-head record.
On a previous day, Sindhu, India’s highest-ranked women’s singles player at 13th, defeated Japan’s world No. 35 Manami Suizu 22-20, 21-18 in 53 minutes to secure a spot in the pre-quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Lakshya, who triumphed over world No. 23 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei in the opening round, will next compete against Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul of Thailand in the quarter-finals.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, after a hard-fought victory over Japan’s Koki Watanabe, will face Chou Tien Chen of Taipie. Additionally, Anmol Kharb is scheduled to play against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the women’s singles second round. However, World Championships bronze medallist HS Prannoy and rising star Tanvi Sharma were eliminated from the BWF Super tournament following their first-round defeats.
Kiran George also faced disappointment as he lost his men’s singles opener to Indonesia’s Moh. Zaki Ubaidillah in straight games, with a score of 21-17, 21-14. Furthermore, India’s mixed doubles pairs Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto and Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Shivani Gadde were unsuccessful in their opening-round matches.
