Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, Kiran George advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the SaarLorLux Open Super Tour 100 in Germany on Thursday. However, Mithun Manjunath and BM Rahul Bhardwaj went down in the third round.
Sen, who had won his first BWF World Tour title at the Dutch Open in October, didn’t have to break any sweat as his opponent Germany’s Lars Schaenzler gave him a walk over, while Kiran beat Netherlands’ Joran Kweekel 21-14 21-16 to also make it to the last eight.
The 18-year-old from Uttarakhand will face Germany’s Max Weisskirchen next while reigning Junior National champion George takes on France’s Christo Popov in the quarter-finals.
On Wednesday night, Sen had staved off a stiff challenge from Finland’s Eetu Heino in the second round. The eighth seeded Indian, who had defeated Heino on way to his title win at Belgian international in September, overcame the Finnish shuttler 21-18 18-21 22-20 in a 56-minute second round match.
Earlier, Mithun went down fighting 21-15 19-21 11-21 to fifth seeded Toby Penty of England, Bhardwaj lost 18-21 14-21 to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in a 42-minute clash.
Mithun had earlier beaten Malaysia’s Chong Yee Han 21-15 21-14 and Bhardwaj defeated Germany’s Kai Schaefer 21-13 21-15 to enter the pre-quarter-finals.
Fifth seeded women’s doubles pair of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh, who got a bye in the first round, went down to Denmark’s Julie Finne-Ipsen and Mai Surrow in the pre-quarters. The Indian seeds were pushed to three games before losing 21-17, 17-21, 21-14.
Men’s doubles pairing of Vaibhaav and Prakash Raj lost to fourth seeds Scotland pair of Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall 21-9, 21-8.
