Vietnam Open: Lakshya Sen pulls out of tournament due to injury; Ajay Jayaram to carry India's hopes

Ho Chi Minh City: Asian junior champion Lakshya Sen on Monday pulled out of the $75,000 Vietnam Open BWF Tour Super 100 after failing to recover from shin splint injuries. “Lakshya has pulled out as he still has pain from the shin splint injuries. He is getting it in both legs so after coming back from Asian Junior, he was feeling pain during the practice,” Lakshya’s mentor and former national coach Vimal Kumar told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_4455563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Lakshya Sen. Image courtesy: Twitter @BAI_Media[/caption] “We consulted the physio. Heath Matthews (Physio) takes care of him, so they have gone to Mumbai. An MRI will be done to see how to go about it,” he added. The 16-year-old from Uttarakhand had ended India’s 53-year long wait for a men’s singles gold when he clinched the title at the Asia Junior championship last month. In Lakshya’s absence, senior shuttler Ajay Jayaram, who finished runners-up at the White Nights International Challenge, will carry India’s hopes and he will begin his campaign against local player Le Duc Phat. Mithun Manjunath, who had reached the semifinals of the Russian Open, will play a yet-to-be-decided qualifier. Abhishek Yeligar will face Maurius’ Georges Julien Paul, Shreyansh Jaiswal will also take on a qualifier and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina will square off against the experienced Tien Minh Nguyen. Siddharth Pratap Singh will fight it out with Chinese Taipei’s Lu Chia Hung, Kartikey Gulshan Kumar will clash with Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito and Bodhit Joshi will cross swords with Thailand’s Adulrach Namkul. In women’s singles, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who won a gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games, will face Malaysia’s Yin Fun Lim. Mugdha Agrey will test her skills against seventh seeded Chinese Han Yue, while Vaidehi Choudhari lock horns with USA’s Crystal Pan and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli faces Indonesia’s Yulia Yosephin Susanto. Rasika Raje will meet a qualifer in the opening round. Second-seeded women’s doubles pair of Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram will face a pair from the qualifying round, while Poorvisha will again pair up with Shivam Sharma as they take on Tadayuki Urai and Rena Miyaura.