Commonwealth Games gold medalist Lakshya Sen suffered a straight-game loss to Japan's Kodai Naraoka in the men's singles quarterfinals of the Denmark Open 2022 Super 750 Badminton tournament on Saturday. And with this loss, India's campaign has ended in this tournament.
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Lakshya had defeated compatriot HS Prannoy to make the quarter-finals but he could not maintain the momentum. World Championship-2021 bronze medalist Sen lost 17-21, 12-21 to Youth Olympics 2018 bronze medalist Naraoka. Naraoka had taken the lead in the match from the very beginning. After taking a 5-2 lead in the beginning, he scored 13-9. Sen at one point took a 15-14 lead but the Japanese opponent made a swift comeback.
Things got worse for Sen in the second game, with Naraoka taking a 5-1 lead and holding an 11-3 lead at the interval. Naraoka dominated Lakshya after leading 13-6. Although Lakshya Sen scored three points, Naroka soon made a comeback, beating her opponent.
It is worth noting that both the players have played face to face three times, in which Japan has won twice. Interestingly, in the semi-finals of the 2018 Youth Olympics, Lakshya Sen had defeated Naroka, but in the match played on Friday, the 21-year-old proved to be heavy on Lakshya Sen.
On the other hand, India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the competition in the quarterfinals after suffering a straight-game defeat against fourth-seeded Malaysian duo of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh. Sen's campaign ended India's outing in the Denmark Open 2022.