Japan Open 2022: India’s star shuttler Lakshya Sen suffered a shocking defeat at the ongoing Japan Open Super 750 tournament in the round of 32 after losing 21-18, 14-21, 13-21 to Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. Sen, who is the current Commonwealth Games champion, lost against the Japanese for the first time in two meetings.
Sen started well and won the first game 21-18 but Nishimoto came back in the second game to win 14-21. In the third game, Sen was not at his best as he went down 5-11 before going on the break. After that, he could not recover from the big losses and in the final game he lost 21-13.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth have advanced to the next round after winning their respective matches. Srikanth World No. In a thrilling match, he defeated Li Jia of Malaysia 22-20, 23-21. Prannoy defeated Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong, who retired from the match.
However, the men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to Korea’s Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho 21-19, 21-23, 15-21 in three sets. The first two matches were pretty close and the Indians won the first game before losing to a close in the second game. They then lost 15-21 in the decider. Also, the mixed doubles pair of Juhi Devangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad lost 11-21, 10-21 to top-seeded Chinese pair of Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiang.
Sen was brilliant at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he defeated Tje Young Ng of Malaysia 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 to win the gold medal. He joined the elite list of Indians, including Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi and Parupalli Kashyap, to win a gold medal in men’s singles at the Commonwealth Games stage.