Lakshya Sen’s return to the badminton tour ended in the Round of 16 at the Arctic Open Super 500 in Vantaa, Finland after a tight three-set loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen on Thursday.
There were seven matches, across categories, that featured Indians. However, none managed to make it to their respective quarter-finals.
In their first meeting since the quarter-final of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Sen managed to take the first game but after being given a scare. The Indian shuttler had taken a 13-7 lead, only for Chou to claw back into the game and level proceedings at 15-15.
The Chinese Taipei player had even taken a 19-17 lead, but Sen managed to win four points on the trot to secure the first game 21-19.
Sen then raced to a 6-2 and later 9-5 lead in the second only for Chou to find a way back into the game. At 13-13, the seventh seed from Chinese Taipei took a lead that he would not relinquish, eventually winning the game 21-18 to send the match into the decider.
Riding on the momentum, Chou raced to a 10-2 lead and held on to secure the match with a 19-21, 21-18, 21-15 win.
In the other men’s singles fixture, qualifier Kiran George was handed a 17-21, 8-21 defeat by fifth seed Jonatan Christie.
In the women’s singles section, Malvika Bansod’s run at the competition came to an end in a 38-minute match against Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, who moved into the quarter-final with a 21-15, 21-8 win over the Indian.
Unnati Hooda lost her Round of 16 match as well, losing to Canada’s Michelle Li 10-21, 19-21.
Later on, Aakarshi Kashyap was handed a heavy 9-21, 8-21 loss by second seeded Chinese player Han Yui.
Over in mixed doubles, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath were beaten 21-12, 21-15 by fourth seeded Chinese pair Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi.
And in women’s doubles, the Panda sisters, Rituparna and Swetaparna, lost 8-21, 10-21 to top seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China.
