Jakarta: Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen crashed out of the Indonesia Master Super 500 badminton tournament after losing to world No.3 Jonatan Christie in the quarterfinals here on Friday.
Lakshya went down to local favourite Christie 21-15, 10-21, 13-21 in 61 minutes of play. This was the Indian shuttler's first loss to Christie in their second meeting.
Both players engaged in high-quality rallies from the start but it was the Indian who went into the first mid-game break with an 11-8 lead. He built on his lead to take the first game convincingly.
After the change of ends, Christie turned the table in his favour with a clever mix of backhand and forehand shots and forced the decider.
In the third game, Lakshya continued to trouble the Asian Games champion by engaging him in longer rallies but the Indonesian, with more energy in the bank, led 11-6 at the break.
Lakshya produced a few good winners and reduced the deficit with four straight points post-interval. The fatigue, however, caught up with him as Christie sealed the match with his deadly crosscourt smashes.
The Indian challenge came to an end as the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto lost to Japan's Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 13-21, 18-21 in the quarterfinals.
