French Open: Lakshya Sen enters quarter-finals with comfortable win; Sameer Verma retires hurt

Paris: India’s Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals with a straight game win over Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew but Sameer Verma retired midway due to an injury at the French Open Super 750 tournament in Paris on Thursday. Lakshya won his second round match 21-17, 21-13 in 40 minutes. He will clash with either Korea’s Heo Kwanghee or Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei next. Sameer won the first game 21-16 but couldn’t complete his match against Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, retiring after losing the second game 12-21 due to an injury. The Indian had also retired at the Denmark Open quarter-finals last week after suffering a calf muscle injury. Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa put up a gallant fight before losing 21-15, 17-21, 19-21 to second seeded Indonesian pairing of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. Lakshya galloped to a 13-7 lead early on but Loh reeled off seven straight points to briefly grab the lead. The Indian, however, didn’t allow his opponent to ran away as he moved to a 17-16 lead and pocketed the game comfortably. In the second game, Lakshya led 7-4 and even though Loh clawed back at 8-8, the Indian moved to 13-11 soon before shutting the door with five straight points from 16-13.