Lakshya Sen defeated HS Prannoy in an all-Indian contest to book his place in the men’s singles quarter-final at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
India’s Lakshya defeated compatriot Prannoy 21-12, 21-6.
Sen joined Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth, who had reached the quarterfinals in the London and Rio edition of the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
Currently ranked 22, Sen will face 12th seed Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the quarterfinals.
“I think having tough matches gives you confidence. I am now ready to go deep into the tournament. It will be a tricky match against Chou, I have to go and recover well and give my 100 %,” Sen said after the match.
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Sen was steady in his defense and mixed his attack well, while Prannoy, who played a three-game match last evening, looked tired and didn’t show much resistance during the 39-minute contest.
It was the end of campaign for Prannoy, who had recovered from a bout of Chikungunya to compete at his maiden Olympics.
Sen was off to a good start, leading 7-4. He kept things under control as Prannoy seemed to struggle, played too defensively and was left to do the catch-up act. Sen closed out the opening game comfortably.
The second game was a blur as Sen looked rock solid and quickly wrapped up the contest after leading all the way.
Both the Indian shutllers came into the game with resounding victories in the last matgch of the group stage.
Sen had topped his group after his 21-18 21-12 thrashing of Indonesia’s world number 4 Jonatan Christie, the reigning All England and Asian champion.
Prannoy, a world championships and Asian Games bronze medallist, staved off a spirited challenge from World No. 70 Le Duc Phat of Vietnam 16-21 21-11 21-12 in a 62-minute battle.
Earlier, Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s Olympic dream came crashing down as they lost to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in the men’s doubles quarterfinal.
One of the favourites for the gold medal, Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Asian Games champions and Commonwealth Games winners, squandered a first-game advantage to go down 21-13 14-21 16-21 in a hard-fought quarterfinal against the world number 3 Malaysians.
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Later in the day, PV Sindhu will take on He Bingiiao of China in the women’s singles Round of 16.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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