Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2018: Lakshya Sen, men’s doubles pair of Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh reach quarter-finals

India’s top junior, Lakshya Sen became the only singles shuttler from the country to make it through to the quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday. Joining him in the last-eight stage was the men’s doubles pair of Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Dingku Singh Konthoujam, hailing from Manipur.

Sen, who is seeded sixth at this tournament, had to battle hard in his third round for a gruelling 21-6, 18-21, 21-15 win over Japan’s Riku Hatano in 48 minutes. His fourth round outing turned out to be much easier as he needed 38 minutes to prevail over the 11th seeded Saran Jamsri of Thailand 21-15, 21-16.

However, the path gets tougher for the Indian now as he is slated to face the second seed Li Shifeng of China.

But the standout performance from the Indian contingent came from the men’s doubles pair of Manjit and Dingku. They first beat Hong Kong’s Ko Shing Hei and Mak Pak Ngai 21-14, 21-15.

In the third round, they held their nerves for a tight 24-22, 16-21, 21-17 upset win over the seventh seeds Thanawin Madee and Wachirawit Sothon.

The quarter-finals present quite a challenge for the Indians as they have the top seeds Di Zijian and Wang Chang as their opponents.

Apart from these three Indians, all the others in contention on Day 2 of the tournament crashed out. The biggest disappointment was the women’s singles seventh seed Aakarshi Kashyap. She began her campaign on Thursday, having received a bye in the first round. Kashyap was immediately shown the door by Thailand’s Benyapa Aimsaard after an 18-21, 17-21 loss.

Dipti Kuity, Medha Shashidaran both followed Kashyap in the same round. Kavipriya Selvam won a round before surrendering 19-21, 8-21 to the fourth seed Yaxin Wei.

In men’s singles, Kiran George bowed out in the pre-quarter-finals to the seventh seed Alberto Alvin Yulianto 19-21, 19-21. Priyanshu Rajawat also suffered the same fate as he went down 15-21, 14-21 to the 15th seed Tze Yong NG.

In men’s doubles, the pairs of Sai Rohit Bomboji-Akash Chandran and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala-Srikrishna Sai Kumar Podile lost while in women’s doubles, Srishti Jupudi-Preethi Konadam and Simran Singhi-Ritika Thaker made their way out.