World Championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen suffered a straight-game loss to lower-ranked Shesar Hiren Rustawito in the men's singles second round of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday. The world number 9 Indian has lost 20-229-21 to the world number 24 Indonesian player in 33 minutes.
Malvika Bansod, one of the emerging players, has also failed to make it to the quarter-finals. She went up against Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 8-21 14-21 in the second round of women's singles. The mixed doubles pair of Sumit Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa have also been ruled out of the tournament. The Indian pair lost 20-22 21-18 14-21 in three games to the fifth Chinese pair of Ou Xuan Yi and Huang Ya Qiang in a tight match that lasted almost an hour.
The first game saw a fierce battle between sixth seed Lakshya and Rustawito, who had made two consecutive finals at the German Open and All England Championships, which the Indonesian had won. In the second game, Rustavito won the match without giving any chance to the 20 year old Indian player.
Wesley So won by defeating Nakamura
Benzema once again scored a hat-trick in the Champions League
India's women's team is going to be a strong contender against Korea