Lakshya stuns Christie to enter quarters, Malvika loses to Yamaguchi

"I had some pain from yesterday's match. I have been wearing a brace for the past week on my disc but it increased during yesterday's first game actually

India's Lakshya Sen stunned world no. 2 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in a superlative display to enter the men's singles quarterfinals of the All England Championships here on Thursday. Lakshya just took 36 minutes to beat Christie 21-13 21-10 in a one-sided contest. The win reduced Lakshay's head-to-head record against Christie to 3-4.

This was the first time Lakshya played Christie, seeded third in this event, after the Paris Olympics. Lakshya dominated Christie from the word go in a fluent show of skills. The Indian used his energy and superb court coverage to fox the Indonesian and raced to a narrow 11-7 lead at the break in the first game. But after the break Christie tried to forge his way back into the contest latching on Lakshya's unforced errors to bring it level to 12-12. Thereafter, Lakshya upped his game as Christie struggled as the Indian forced his way into the quarterfinals with consummate ease.

Malvika ousted

Even as Lakshya stormed into the quarterfinals, India's women's singles campaign ended with Malvika Bansod losing in straight games against two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals. The world no. 3 Yamaguchi hardly broke a sweat to get the better of world no.28 Malvika 21-16 21-13 in a contest that lasted just 33 minutes. Yamaguchi has now extended her head-to-head record against Malvika to 4-0.

Malvika struggled to adjust to the conditions, repeatedly hitting wide, long, and into the net to fall behind early. Despite a few unforced errors of her own, Yamaguchi seized the advantage at the mid-game interval with a deft drop shot followed by an accurate placement. The Indian shuttler managed to stay within striking distance till 13-15, but Yamaguchi soon surged ahead, earning a slew of game points before sealing the opening game as Malvika sent another shot wide.

The Japanese started the second game strongly, taking a 3-1 lead but Malvika fought back to level scores at 5-5 and later 8-8. However, her inconsistency returned, allowing Yamaguchi to go into the interval with a comfortable lead. There was little resistance from Malvika after the change of ends, as Yamaguchi raced ahead, earning eight match points. She closed out the contest with a smash on her second opportunity. Earlier on Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the women's singles event.

Satwik-Chirag concedes match

Seventh seed Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty conceded their pre-quarterfinal match against Hao Nan Xie and Wei Han Zeng of China midway after the Indian pair was trailing 16-21 2-2 due to a past back injury of Chirag that flared up. Chirag said the injury flared up after Wednesday's match but he just wanted to give it a go.

"I had some pain from yesterday's match. I have been wearing a brace for the past week on my disc but it increased during yesterday's first game actually. It was quite unbearable for me to move around. We thought we will see for the first 10 points but it was too difficult to play," he said.

Rankireddy said he got to know about Chirag's problem just before Thursday's match but agreed with his partner's decision to concede the match. "Tough times, I felt we are in very comfortable position. Even he (Chirag) was trying from the first day but he didn't tell me, so we he was just playing with the pain. "Before the match he told me and said we will see and I said no worries, this is not the end of the life. May be not this year, next year for sure," Rankireddy said.

India's campaign ends in mixed doubles

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also crashed out in the round of 16, losing to fifth seeded Chinese pair of Zhe Feng Yan and Xin Wei Ya 10-21 12-21.

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