Birmingham: The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were the only Indians to make it to the quarterfinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships as compatriots Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered losses in their respective second round matches, here.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri and Treesa defeated former world No. 1 Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-14, 24-22 in 50 minutes in their round of 16 match Thursday night.
The world No 17 pair will now take on the world No. 23 women’s doubles pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Li Wen Mei of China in the quarter-finals.
However, last year’s runner-up Lakshya Sen crashed out of the men’s singles event after losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark in straight games at the Utilita Arena.
World No. 19 Sen began the match on a positive note but once the two shuttlers were tied at 11-11, two-time world championships medallist Antonsen upped the ante to win 10 of the next 12 points and go 1-0 up.
Sen, a world championships bronze medallist, mounted a comeback to lead Anders Antonsen by six points at the second break. However, a series of consecutive points saw the Dane race ahead and take the match 21-13, 21-15 in 52 minutes.
Meanwhile, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to in-form Chinese shuttlers Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-10, 17-21, 19-21 in the men’s doubles clash.
Other Indian players HS Prannoy, ranked ninth, and former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth also lost in their men’s singles round of 16 matches. Prannoy went down to world No. 3 Indonesian shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 20-22, 21-15, 17-21. Srikanth, world No. 22, faced a 17-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of world No. 6 Japanese shuttler Kodai Naraoka.
IANS
