Indian Badminton Thread ...

[Omkara]

Wow this is a good result. An all Indian final in Germany would be a treat

[sameerph]

Putting detailed results-

At Hylo Open 2021, Germany (BWF 500)

[QF] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,15) d. (3) Na Kang Long Angus (HKG,9) 21-11 12-21 21-19

[QF] Lakshya Sen (IND,21) d. Kunlavut Vitidsaran (THA,24) 21-18 12-21 21-19

20 year old Lakshya beat fellow 20 year old and his junior rival from Thailand whom he had lost in the junior world championships 2019 SF. Both of them are taking next steps on mens tour.

Next,

[SF] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,15) vs. (2) Lee Zii Jia (MAS,8)

Both have never played before. 23 year old Lee is one of the big young talent on mens tour. It will be tough match and Srikanth will have to be at his best to prevail.

[SF] Lakshya Sen (IND,21) vs. Loh Kean Yew (SIN,39)

Head to head 2-1 in Lakshya's favour. Lakshya lost to Loh in early October in Dutch open final but last week beat him comfortably at French Open. Hope he repeats last week's result.

[sameerph]

Both lost in the semi final.

At Hylo Open 2021, Germany (BWF 500)

[SF] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,15) l.(2) Lee Zii Jia (MAS,8) 19-21 20-22

[SF] Lakshya Sen (IND,21) l. Loh Kean Yew (SIN,39) 18-21 12-21

[arjun2761]

Loh went on to win the title, so he was in great form. Otherwise, a lost opportunity for Lakshya Sen to start taking the steps to move towards the top 10 which should be his next goal as he appears to be on the brink of the top 20....

[sameerph]

Yes, Laskhya broke into top 20 for the first time this week. But, there is still a lot of ground to cover from top 20 to top 10 in badmintion. I watched his match against Loh on Saturday and he did not have killer smashes to pick up winners, Loh picked up almost all his smashes, also net game needs improvement.

Anyway, Lakshya has age on his side. He is only 20. Youngest in top 10 in Malaysian Lee Zia Jii who is 23 but I think top 10 last year. Lakshya can probably set a target in 2023.

[jayakris]

$600,000 Indonesia Masters:

[R1] Lakshya Sen (IND,19) d. Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,10) 21-17, 18-21, 21-17 ... Pretty good win for Lakshya, no? ... Is he really beginning to hit a stride now? But he runs into the top seed world #1 Kento Momota (JPN) now.

PVS beat Supanida Katethong (Ina) 21-15, 21-19 as well, to reach R2.

[arjun2761]

Definitely excited about lakshya Sen's progress into the top 20. Since he has beaten the #11 and #10 in recent weeks, it appears to me that he is capable of getting close to the top 10 sooner rather than later. Of course, he has also lost to a couple of lower ranked players but they were on hot streaks.

[Omkara]

Our doubles team lost. Losing momentum?

[sameerph]

Excellent win by Lakshya. Tsuneyama had won a big title at French Open 3 weeks back. He has certainly shown to have taken a step up his level this month.

Today Srikanth, Prannoy won their matches. Sai Praneeth lost a close one in the third game.

[arjun2761]

Lakshya Sen falls to #1 Momota in the R-16 at the Indonesian Open 13-21, 19-21. Looks like a competitive second game.

[sameerph]

Huge win for HS Prannoy over world #2 and Olympic champion Axelsen. Srikanth also beats world #8 Jonathan Christie. Prannoy and Srikanth meet each other in QF.

[arjun2761]

Wow, these are amazing wins! So a little resurgence by our men after struggling for quite a while!

[sameerph]

Srikanth beat Prannoy easily in the QF and Sindhu also won thru against Turkish player. She has got somewhat of an easy draw thus far here.

So, it is Srikanth against world # 2 Dane Antonsen - head to head 1-2 And Sindhu against Japanese Yamaguchi- head to head 12-7 in favour of Sindhu- Sindhu won the last match in QF of Tokyo olympics but after that Yamahuchi has been on a tear and has won both French open and Denmark open titles.

[sameerph]

Both Srikanth and Sindhu lost in straight games in SF. As I said Yamaguchi has been in cracking form since olympics and Sindhu has not quite hit her stride. So, expected result. Watched Srikanth's match and he made so many errors. Still lacks the confidence and therefore and the game that he had 2-3 years back but at least this SF at this level was much better result for Srikanth in recent past.

[prasen9]

Sindhu is again back to relaxing/cruising. She will get fired up in the next big one, hopefully. Asian Games? World Championship?