Top Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective matches at the Indonesia Open 2023 in Jakarta on Wednesday to set up an intriguing round of 16 clash.
Sen scored a 21-17, 21-13 win over Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia while Srikanth brushed aside Lu Guang Zu 21-13, 21-19 of the People’s Republic of China at the Istora Senayan sports arena.
Jia, the 2021 All England Open champion, was matching toe-to-toe with Sen in the first game and the pair was tied at 17-all. However, the Indian shifted gears in the final stretch of the first game to win four consecutive points and have his nose in front. Whereas, in the second game it was one-way traffic as Sen won it 21-13 to emerge victorious.
After the defeat, Lee announced that he would take a short break from the sport and will not return to the court until he gets back his "motivation".
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“I think for now I will probably temporarily quit badminton. I don’t know how long I’ll take, but I will quit badminton until I get the motivation again. I will take a break and rest for a while,” he told BWF.
“Maybe I will stop playing tournaments. I have been considering this for long. It’s too much for me on the court. I can’t concentrate 100 percent. It will be good for me to take a break. The priority is to find my passion on court. I did well at the Sudirman Cup but I haven’t done much different after that.”
On the other hand, Srikanth, sealed a comfortable victory over Zu in just 46 minutes. He hardly broke a sweat to win the first game 21-13 and took a lead of 18-11 in the second. However, a lapse of concentration allowed the Chinese to make a comeback and level the scores at 19-all. But the former world No.1 held his nerves and managed to win in straight games to progress to the next round.
Meanwhile, India's Priyanshu Rajawat, received a walkover in his first-round match against Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.
In the women's singles category, India's Aakarshi Kashyap faced defeat against world No. 2 An Se Young of South Korea in the round of 32.
Previously, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy, two top Indian badminton players, advanced to the second round, whereas, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are in the round of 16 in the men's doubles event.
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