Lakshya advances to last-8, Saina bows out

Jakarta: India's Lakshya Sen on Thursday advanced to the men's singles quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 tournament while Saina Nehwal crashed out in the women's singles second round.

Sen, seeded seventh, came from a game down to win 19-21, 21-8, 21-17 against Malaysia's NG Tze Yong in the round of 16, a rematch of the Commonwealth Games final.

Both the shuttlers were evenly matched in the early exchanges and were tied at 13-all in the first game before Malaysian took the lead and clinched the opening game. But Lakshya bounced back and dominated the second game to draw level game-all.

The deciding game was a tighter affair as the Indian shuttler had to win the final three points on the trot to seal the spot in the last-eight.

In the quarterfinal, Lakshya will lock horns with fourth-seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie. This will be the pair's second meeting and first since the 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships knockout round, where the Indian emerged victorious in grueling straight sets.

On the other hand, Saina bowed out in the second round after suffering 15-21, 7-21 loss at hands of eighth-seed Chinese shuttler Yue Han. Later in the day, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will be in action in the women's doubles round of 16 match against Indonesians Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto.