Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], January 8 (ANI): India’s Lakshya Sen crashed out of the Malaysia Open 2026 badminton event, dropping to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu within the males’s singles pre-quarterfinals on the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Lakshya Sen, thirteenth within the badminton rankings, misplaced 22-20, 21-15 in opposition to world No. 18 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong, China in 53 minutes, as per Olympics.com.
The 24-year-old Indian shuttler had a promising begin, main 11-9 on the interval and even holding 4 sport factors within the opening sport. However, Lee Cheuk Yiu’s six consecutive factors turned the tide, and he took the opener in a tie-break. Sen could not recuperate, dropping the second sport as nicely.
This was Lakshya Sen’s third defeat in 5 matches in opposition to Lee Cheuk Yiu.
Earlier within the day, India’s two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and the lads’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty superior to the quarterfinals.
Competing within the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 1000 occasion, the previous world champion outplayed eighth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan to e-book her place within the remaining eight.
The two-time Olympian, presently ranked 18th within the BWF ladies’s singles rankings, defeated world No. 33 Sung Shuo-yun of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 22-20 to advance to the second spherical in her first-round match. Sindhu dominated the opening sport, 21-8, and maintained momentum to seal the match 21-13 within the second sport.
Sindhu will subsequent face the winner of the conflict between China’s Gao Fang Jie and third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan within the quarterfinals.
In males’s doubles, third seeds Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy additionally superior after securing a 21-18, 21-11 win over Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 39 minutes.
With the victory, the Indians prolonged their head-to-head document in opposition to the Malaysian pair to 4-0.They will subsequent face the winners of the conflict between Chinese Taipei’s Chen Zhi Ray/Lin Yu Chieh and sixth seeds Fajar Alfian/Fikri Muhammad of Indonesia.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj had moved to the second spherical, beating Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan 21-13, 21-15 in a match that lasted simply 35 minutes. (ANI)