Macau Open Super 300: Lakshya Sen makes solid start; Rakshitha Ramraj stages impressive comeback in three-game battle

Indian Express

5 days ago

In his assessment of Lakshya Sen's second-round exit at the China Open last week, coach Vimal Kumar was hyper critical. The veteran mentor wanted Lakshya to stop making the same mistakes over and over – the odd flick serve that costs dear, making tactical mistakes at critical junctures, and overthinking to name a few. The World Championships are not far away, and Lakshya's been making early exits from tournaments too frequently to get the right match fitness. 'He needs match practice. In badminton, you can't say too many matches if you are losing early. They hardly play 40-50 a year. Tennis players have it more gruelling. Yes, the badminton circuit is tough, but you can crib if you reach quarterfinals consistently. Not if you lose early. You have to convert such matches,' was coach Vimal's advice.
At the Macau Open – a Super 300 event – this week, Lakshya is the second seed, despite being world No 17. But more than the field he is a part of, the India No 1 just needs to put together a string of good performances. From that perspective, his 21-8, 21-14 win against Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin in the round of 32 on Wednesday was a solid start. The Korean can be a tricky customer with his solid defensive style, as he has shown in team events in the past. Lakshya dominated the opening game but was pushed to the limits in the second as Jin controlled the shuttle better, but the Indian still managed to come through in 38 minutes. He next faces Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo.
Joining Lakshya in the second round of men's singles are Ayush Shetty, who has made the Super 300 stage a happy hunting ground this season, including the title win at US Open, and Tharun Mannepalli. The latter defeated a fellow Indian shuttler in Manraj Singh 21-19, 21-13 while Ayush overcame Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu Kai 21-10, 21-11.
It was, however, another early exit for HS Prannoy who ran out of steam against Indonesia's Yohanes Saut Marcellyno after taking the opening game, going down 21-18, 15-21, 15-21. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran went down to Malaysia's Justin Hoh 19-21, 12-21 in 37 minutes, and Hoh now faces Ayush. For Tharun, the second-round test comes in the form of top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu.
On a day when six Indians were in action in women's singles, the solitary winner was Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj as she outlasted Thailand's Pornpicha Choeikeewong 18-21, 21-17, 22-20. Up against the world No 35 – five places above her – the 18-year-old Indian faced a significant deficit in the decider, down 2-10 at one point. But she hung in there, cut down her errors, and kept clawing her way back. As she saw a down-the-line smash brush Choeikeewong's racquet and not come back, her shoulders relaxed in relief as she prevailed in 63 minutes.
The rest of the matches were defeats that one could see coming: Aakarshi Kashyap went down against former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara, Tasnim Mir was no match for top seed Chen Yufei, while Anmol Kharb would rue the missed game-point opportunities against second Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the opener but was eventually outclassed in straight games. Even Anupama Upadhyaya had a tricky test against former junior World Champion Riko Gunji.
But the frustrating result of the day was Unnati Hooda — who had stunned two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu at the China Open last week — losing to a player now ranked below her, going down 21-16, 19-21, 17-21 against Denmark's Julie Dawall Jakobsen in 59 minutes. Rakshitha will next face Ongbamrungphan.
In mixed doubles, fifth seeds Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, ranked 18th in the world, defeated Thailand's Ratchapol Makkasasithorn and Nattamon Laisuan 21-10 21-15 in a 26-minute clash. In an all-Indian men's doubles clash, P Krishnamurthy Roy and S Pratheek K prevailed 21-18 21-19 over D Konthoujam and Amaan Mohammad to enter the second round. Earlier on Tuesday, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, second seeds, made it to the second round of men's doubles while top seeds in women's doubles – Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand – suffered early exits.