Denmark Open: Lakshya Sen, Chirag-Rankireddy exit to end India's campaign

The men's singles quarterfinal match at the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense, Denmark, on Friday saw India's Lakshya Sen lose to Japan's Kodai Naraoka to make an exit from the Denmark Open 2022.

India's campaign in the BWF Super 750 competition came to an end after the men's doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost their quarterfinal match earlier in the day as well.

Men's singles competitors HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth as well as women's singles competitor Saina Nehwal had already bowed out in the preliminary stages.

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto, a mixed doubles team, and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, a women's doubles team, both lost in the round of 16.

Lakshya Sen, the current Commonwealth Games champion and world No. 8 in badminton, started the match slowly but picked up his speed halfway through the first game to take a 14-13 lead. Naraoka, who was ranked 16 spots below Lakshya, regained momentum and won the opening game.

Lakshya Sen, who is skilled at making late comebacks, was anticipated to turn things around in the second game, but the Japanese shuttler proved to be too strong for him, picking up points at regular intervals to keep a comfortable lead to end the match in 46 minutes.

In the men's doubles, the seventh-seeded Indian team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy gave it their all but fell to the defending world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 21-16, 21-19.

The Indian badminton pair got off to a strong start and kept pace with the Malaysian pair in the early going of the first game after eliminating All England champions Muhammad Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia by straight games on Thursday.

Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, on the other hand, scored four straight points after the score had tied at 8, carrying the momentum to easily win the first game.

In the second game, the Indian team started strong and quickly built a 13-9 lead, but the Malaysians once again turned the tables with a run of four straight points to tie the score and eventually take the lead 20-17.

The world champions eventually won the game in 41 minutes despite Satwik's heroic defence, which was focused largely on the front court and cost the Malaysians two match points.

( With inputs from ANI )

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