New Zealand Open: Lakshya Sen beats Ajay Jayaram, Teck Zhi Soo to enter main draw; Parupalli Kashyap ousted

Auckland: Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen made it to the main draw of New Zealand Open after getting the better of compatriot Ajay Jayaram and Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo in his qualifying round matches. [caption id=“attachment_4455563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Lakshya Sen. Image courtesy: Twitter @BAI_Media[/caption] Up against a senior and more experienced compatriot, Lakshya showed a lot of determination as he handed Jayaram a 21-18, 21-13 defeat in his first qualifying match that lasted 31 minutes. He then took 32 minutes to thrash Zhi Soo 21-11, 21-12 in his second qualifier and storm into the main draw of the men’s singles. In the main draw, the 17-year-old will be up against Wang Tzu Wei of Taipei in his opening round. Another Indian in the fray on Tuesday, Parupalli Kashyap failed to make the main round as he lost his second qualifying match. Kashyap put up an impressive show in his opening qualifier, beating Peter Yan of Australia 21-8, 21-9 in just 26 minutes but could not cross the second hurdle, going down 16-21, 18-21 to Sun Feixiang of China in a battle that lasted 42 minutes. The main draw matches will commence on Wednesday.