Following dramatic victories on Thursday, Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and World Championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen advanced to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton competition.
Sindhu and Sen advance to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters
Sen, a player of the Indian team that won the Thomas Cup for the first time in Bangkok, defeated ranked number 13 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in 54 minutes inside the men’s singles.
Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia made Sindhu work extremely hard for nearly an hour in the women’s singles until winning 23-21 20-22 21-11 in the second round.
Sen, placed seventh, will face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, who ousted Indian in a three-game thriller during the Thomas Trophy the previous week.
Sindhu will face the defending champion featuring Thailand’s fifth seed Ratchanok Intanon and Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the quarterfinals.
Sindhu opened on a high note and played aggressively to take a 10-5 lead over unseeded Tunjung. She first exploited her expertise and range to involve her rivals in lengthy rallies.
However the Indonesian, whom Sidhu had previously beaten six times, staged a spectacular comeback to claw her way back into the match and square the scoreline at 15 each.
From then, it was a neck-and-neck battle seen between two players as they swapped points till 21 until Sindhu increased her intensity to win the opening game.
The previous match was indeed a polar opposite, with Tunjung starting on an offensive track and racing to a 10-5 lead before Sindhu returned home to tie it up at 15-15.
Following then, the competitors resumed their point-scoring fight until the game was decided by a motivated Indonesian.
The final, on the other side, was a one-sided affair, as Sindhu didn’t give her rival an ounce within a few opening games, to be exact until seven points, and exploited her great match knowledge to pull away with the title and the game.
Previously during the day, facing Gemke for first time in his professional career, world number 9 Sen shown improved composure, limiting his blunders and working his way to a big win.