Japan Open 2022: India's star shuttler Lakshya Sen on Wednesday made a shocking exit from the ongoing Japan Open Super 750 tournament in the round of 32 after losing to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto by 21-18, 14-21, 13-21. Sen, who is the current Commonwealth Games champion went down against the Japanese for the first time in two meetings.
Sen started off well and won the first game by 21-18 but Nishimoto bounced back in the second game to win it by 14-21. In the third game, Sen wasn't at his best as he trailed 5-11 before going to the break. He then could not recover from the big deficit and suffered a 21-13 defeat in the final game.
Meanwhile, H. S. Prannoy and Kidambi Srikant have reached the next round after winning their respective matches. Srikanth defeated world no. 4 Lee Ziia from Malaysia by 22-20, 23-21 in a thrilling contest. Prannoy defeated Hong Kong's NG Ka Long Angus, who retired from the match.
However, the men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down to Korea's Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in three sets by 21-19 21-23 15-21. The first two contests were pretty close and the Indians won the first game before losing a close one in the second game. They then went down 15-21 in the decider. Also, the mixed doubles pair of Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad lost their match to China's top seed pair of Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong by 11-21 10-21.
Sen was brilliant in the 2022 Commonwealth games where he bagged a Gold after beating Malaysia’s Tze Young NG by 19-21, 21-9, 21-16. He also joined the elite list of Indians including Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi and Parupalli Kashyap to win a Gold medal in men's singles at the Commonwealth Games stage.
