NEW DELHI: One game in the bag, Lakshya Sen had his nose in front against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark. But the narrative changed very soon with Gemke taking the second game to force a decider in men's singles second round of the ongoing India Open Super 750 event. After a polished performance against India counterpart HS Prannoy in the opening round, the onus was on the World No 12 to forget the missed opportunities in the second game and find his mojo in the third game.
But he got off to the worst possible start in the decider and was left playing catch-up. Lakshya showed his willingness and drive to close the gap, but Gemke always seemed to be ahead. The duo's points graph almost met at 14-13 but in the end, Lakshya missed out on the closing stages to lose the game and with that the match. The score, in the end, read 21-16, 15-21, 18-21 in Gemke's favour.
This also means he has surrendered the title, having won it last year. This is a mighty blow for Lakshya, who's still recovering after a minor surgery last year and who is working under new coach Anup Sridhar with the all-important Olympic qualification in mind.
Someone who sets high standards for himself, Lakshya was honest in his assessment and was especially disappointed with the close misses in the deciding game. "Very disappointing start in the third game, especially going 8-1 down. It is not acceptable, I could have taken a few breaks and tried something. I played well to cover up the gap but the whole game I was doing just that. In the end, it was not enough," he said. "I could have played more bravely in the end, made silly errors towards the end, it's a bit frustrating. But I tried my best to close the gap but I could have done better. This (loss) was hard to take. I was very close."
With tournaments coming thick and fast, he will be determined to address the issues and bounce back soon.While Lakshya's contest was a close affair which lasted 1 hour and 21 minutes, Saina Nehwal was handed a reality check. Up against Chen Yu Fei, the gold standard in women's singles at the moment, Saina was forced to submission with 32 minutes. The reigning Olympic champion was too strong for the Indian, who has been a pale shadow of her former self in recent times. The World No 3 Chinese shuttler won 21-9. 21-12.
Satwik injury
In a massive blow for India, doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (seeded No 5) pulled out of their doubles Round of 16 clash against Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi of China because of an injury to Satwik. The other men's pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala also lost. The women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also lost to bow out.