LAKSHYA SEN progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympics men's singles badminton competition with a straight-game win over Indonesia's world number 3 Jonatan Christie in the final group match in Paris on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old from Almora, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, displayed great maturity and tactical acumen to outwit Christie, the reigning All-England and Asian champion, 21-18 21-12 in what turned out to be a lop-sided contest.
Sen is likley to face compatriot HS Prannoy in the pre-quarterfinals. Prannoy will face Vietnam's Le Duc Phat later in the day.
Sen had defeated Kevin Cordon, a Tokyo Olympics semifinalist, in the opening Group L match on Sunday which was "deleted" after his Guatemalan opponent pulled out due to a left elbow injury.
Sen, a gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, then defeated Julien Carraggi of Belgium.
Sindhu in pre-quarters
Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympic Games' women's singles competition after beating Kristin Kuuba of Estonia in straight games here on Wednesday.
The two-time Olympic medallist won 21-5 21-10 in her second and last Group M match here.
Sindhu, who had beaten Maldives' Fathimath Abdul Razzaq 21-9 21-6 in her first match, topped the group.
The winner of each of the 16 groups qualifies for the round of 16.
The Indian ace has previously won a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Games and a bronze in the Tokyo edition.
Boxers face rout
Amit Panghal's campaign at the Paris Olympics mirrored his experience at the Tokyo Games as the seasoned boxer once again made a pre-quarterfinals exit while debutants Jaismine Lamboria and Preeti Pawar were also ousted here on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old suffered a shock 1-4 split verdict loss to Zambia's Patrick Chinyemba, an opponent he had defeated en-route his Commonwealth Games title in 2022, in the 51kg Round of 16 bout.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lamboria's maiden Olympic campaign also went up in smoke as she went down by a 0-5 unanimous decision to Tokyo silver medallist Nesthy Petecio of Phillipines in the 57kg Round of 32 bout.
But the performance of the day belonged to Preeti, who went down by a 2-3 split verdict despite putting up a fearless display in her 54 kg pre-quarterfinal bout against reigning the Pan American Games champion and world silver medallist Yeni Marcela Arias Colombia.
After losing the first round 1-4, the 20-year-old Asian Games bronze medallist made an impressive comeback. She used her height advantage to elude the Colombian's punches while connecting some jabs but her late flourish wasn't enough to impress all judges as the experienced Arias took a narrow win. (PTI)
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