Indonesia Open: Lakshya Sen bows down to compatriot HS Prannoy

Sen
was
comprehensively
beaten
10-21
9-21
by
Prannoy
in
a
men’s
singles
match
that
lasted
a
little
more
than
half
an
hour.
Sen,
who
is
in
red
hot
form,
clinched
his
first-ever
Super
500
title
this
year.

The
20-year-old
reached
the
finals
of
the
prestigious
All
England
Championships
and
was
also
part
of
the
Indian
men’s
team
that
lifted
the
historic
Thomas
Cup
crown.
Interestingly,
this
was
Prannoy’s
first-ever
win
against
Sen
out
of
their
three
head-to-head
meetings
so
far.

In
the
doubles
action,
the
duo
of
M
R
Arjun
and
Dhruv
Kapila
opened
their
account
with
a
win,
getting
the
better
of
higher
ranked
Japanese
pair
of
Kelichiro
Matsui
and
Yoshinori
Takeuchi
27-25
18-25
21-19.
However,
it
was
curtains
for
the
women’s
duo
of
Ashwini
Bhat
and
Shikha
Gautam
as
it
lost
9-21
10-21
to
China’s
Zhang
Shu
Xian
and
Zheng
Yu
in
just
28
minutes.

The
campaign
also
ended
for
another
women’s
pairing
of
Haritha
M
Harinarayan
and
Ashna
Noy
as
the
duo
also
suffered
straight-game
defeat
against
South
Korea’s
Jeong
Na
Eun
and
Kim
Hye
Jeong.

In
the
Sen
versus
Prannoy
game,
the
former
was
no
match
in
front
of
over-aggressive
Prannoy,
who
despite
trailing
3-6
at
one
point,
made
a
strong
comeback,
courtesy
some
good
shots.
The
29-year-old
eventually
extended
his
lead
to
21-10
and
pocketed
the
first
game
easily.
In
the
second
game,
Prannoy
continued
from
where
he
left
off
and
took
a
massive
11-3
lead.

Trailing,
Sen
was
expected
to
make
a
comeback,
but
Prannoy’s
unplayable
cross-court
smashes
made
it
a
difficult
affair
for
the
former.