Garret Tan stuns Lakshya Sen as P.V. Sindhu and Ayush Shetty advance at World Championships in New Delhi
In New Delhi on Wednesday at the Badminton World Championships, Garret Tan upset home favourite Lakshya Sen in the second round, beating him 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 in an hour and 13 minutes. Ayush Shetty and P.V. Sindhu progressed with comfortable wins while Unnati Hooda and India’s mixed and men’s doubles combinations produced mixed results.
Lakshya entered the match as the 14th seed and a bronze medallist at the global tournament, while Tan was ranked World No. 92 and described as an 18-year-old American of Taiwanese descent and a former junior World No. 1. Lakshya had scraped through his opening-round match and was expected to have an easier second-round outing. Ayush Shetty wrapped up his match versus Sri Lanka’s Dumindu Abeywickrama 21-8, 21-10 in 25 minutes, and P.V. Sindhu beat Canadian Wen Yu Zhang 21-16, 21-17, taking 10 more minutes than Ayush to reach the pre-quarterfinals.
The second-round meeting between Lakshya and Tan was tight throughout and swung in the decider. Tan took a medical timeout while leading 17-16 in the third game; after that break he used jump smashes and aggressive play to close out the contest. Sen had taken the opening game but could not sustain momentum once Tan raised the pace in the final stages.
Tan’s overhead power and cross-court smashes repeatedly put Lakshya on the back foot, and his drops complemented that power throughout the match. The second game turned in Tan’s favour after he capitalised on Lakshya’s net mistakes, with high lifts to the back of the court helping Tan to overturn a 11-8 deficit and take the match to a deciding game. In the decider Tan moved quickly to an 11-4 lead, and although crowd support helped Sen narrow the margin, Tan’s sequence after his timeout finished the contest.
In the women’s singles, Sindhu’s 21-16, 21-17 victory over Wen Yu Zhang sets up a meeting with Wang Zhiyi of China in the next round. Unnati Hooda pushed 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada but lost 21-11, 9-21, 21-23. Ayush’s dominant 21-8, 21-10 win was described as easier than his sparring sessions.
In doubles and other singles matches, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto advanced with a 21-11, 21-11 win over Lok Chong Leong and Weng Chi Ng of Macau, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed via walkover after Scotland’s Alexander Dunn and Adam Pringle withdrew following Dunn’s injury. Notable men’s singles results included Loh Kean Yew bt Cheuk Yiu Lee 15-21, 21-17, 21-15; Chou Tien Chen bt Giovanni Toti 21-12, 21-11; Jonatan Christie bt Jia Heng Teh 19-21, 21-19, 21-11; Rasmus Gemke bt Chun-Yi Lin 13-21, 21-17, 21-11; and Li Shifeng bt Jun Hao Leong 21-19, 21-19. Additional doubles results saw Fajar Alfian & Muhammad Shohibul Fikri beat Eloi Adam & Leo Rossi 21-14, 21-13, Kang Min Hyuk & Ki Dong Ju defeat Hariharan Amsakarunan & M.R. Arjun 21-17, 21-14, and Pearly Tan & Thinaah Muralitharan overcome Bengisu Ercetin & Nazlican Inci 21-16, 21-13.
Ayush Shetty and P.V. Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals, with Sindhu scheduled to meet Wang Zhiyi in her next match; Lakshya Sen’s second-round defeat ended his run in this edition of the World Championships, and several doubles pairs moved on either by victory or walkover.