US Open Super 300: PV Sindhu loses in quarter-finals, Lakshya Sen enters last-four

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu suffered a straight-game defeat to crash out in the quarterfinals, but Lakshya Sen marched into the last-four stage of the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament. Sindhu, ranked 12th in the world and seeded third here, was stunned 20-22 13-21 by 24-year-old Gao Fang Jie of China in women’s singles, while Lakshya defeated S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian 21-10 21-17 in an all-Indian men’s singles match on Friday night. Lakshya will face second seed Li Shi Feng of China in the semifinals. The Indian enjoys a 5-3 win-loss ratio against Feng. Olympic medallist Sindhu appeared to be fighting hard against her Chinese opponent, ranked 36th in the world, but the Indian’s inability to win long rallies proved to be crucial in the opening game. Sindhu was completely overpowered in the second as Fang Jie upped her game and gave little room to the Indian to approach the net and play her drop shots. Sindhu defeated Korea’s Sung Shuo Yun to secure a place in the quarterfinals. In an all-Indian affair, third seed Lakshya easily got the better of promising 19-year-old Sankar Muthusamy from Chennai. Lakshya was extremely confident in his rallies and it showed in the final match statistics as he won 42 rallies while Sankar Muthusamy could manage only 27 in a contest that lasted 38 minutes.