New Delhi: P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen suffered straight-game defeats in the women’s and men’s singles quarterfinals, ending the Indian challenge in the USD 500,000 Indonesia Masters badminton tournament in Jakarta on Friday, January 23.
The two-time Olympic medallist lost against top seed and world number four Chen Yu Fei of China 13-21, 17-21 in the quarterfinals, which lasted for 42 minutes. With this defeat, Sindhu now trails Fei 6-8 in the head-to-head record. Her last win against Fei came in 2019. Sindhu showed some glimpses of her brilliance but mostly struggled against her opponent.
Chen took a five-point lead in the match before Sindhu made a comeback in the opening game. She nailed a cross-court smash winner to reach 3-5, but Chen again showed top skills and took 8-4 lead. Chen delivered a signature half-smash to Sindhu’s backhand set up to take an 11-8 lead, and kept building on it to move ahead. The Indian shuttler showed some grit, but the Chinese shuttler won the opening game comfortably.
Sindhu managed to take an early 4-2 lead after changing ends, and went to the interval with an 11-9 score. Chen again made a comeback in the match at 11-12 when the Indian shuttler lost her second review. She lost her composure in the next rally after a straightforward line call went against Sindhu.
She protested to the umpire, which wasn’t received well, and the Indian shuttler got a yellow card for her misconduct. After that, Sindhu struggled in the match and found herself 12-16 down.
She was later called out for delaying the game and received a red card, leading to a point default. Despite all the chaos, Sindhu fought back hard to close down the gap to a point before Chen closed the game out 21-17.
Lakshya loses to Panitchaphon as India’s campaign ends
Lakshya, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, was defeated 18-21, 20-22 by Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in the men’s singles quarterfinal match, which lasted for 46 minutes. The 21-year-old Thai shuttler advanced after defeating 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the pre-quarterfinals.
Overall, Indian shuttlers had a decent campaign in the Indonesia Masters 2026. Sindhu and Lakshya advanced to the quarterfinals but struggled to perform against Chen Yu Fei and Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul.
Youngsters Anmol Khrab and Tanvi Sharma were the big positives for India in the Indonesia Masters. Khrab registered a win in the opening round before losing against former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara, while Sharma gave a tough competition to fourth seed and World No.9 Tomoka Miyazaki, pushing her to three games.
The men’s doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and M R Arjun suffered a defeat in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday. Kidambi Srikanth defeated Koki Watanabe in the opening round, but struggled against Chou Tien Chen.