Srikanth advances to Denmark Open quarters, Lakshya out

TIL Desk Sports/ Kidambi Srikanth on Thursday went through to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open while Lakshya Sen’s campaign came to an end with a defeat to Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. In a hard-fought tie replete with long rallies, Lakshya lost 21-15, 7-21, 17-21. The match lasted for 55 minutes with Lakshya winning the first game after winning six consecutive points from 15-15.

Vittinghus, however, raced back into the match by not allowing Lakshya to cross over into double digits in the second game. Vittinghus remained ahead of Lakshya for much of the closely-fought third game. He pulled away after Lakshya reached 17 points, thus securing the match and a quarterfinal clash against Japanese sixth seed Kenta Nishimoto.

Earlier, Srikanth beat Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue in straight games to enter the quarterfinals. In a match that lasted 33 minutes, Srikanth won 21-15, 21-14. Back in action after seven months, Srikanth had beaten England’s Toby Penty 21-12, 21-18 in his opening match on Wednesday.