Sen shocked, Saina surrenders

New Delhi, January 19

Defending champion Lakshya Sen suffered a heartbreak, going down narrowly to world No. 20 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the second round as the Indian challenge ended at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 tournament here today.

World No. 12 Sen reduced an 8-14 deficit in the decider to 13-14 after losing the second game but couldn’t go the distance, losing 21-16 15-21 18-21 to Gemke in a match that lasted an hour and 21 minutes.

Having won the last two encounters against Gemke, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the reigning champions in the men’s doubles, withdrew from the tournament after the former suffered a hip injury ahead of their second-round clash.

Saina Nehwal also found the going tough against Olympics champion Chen Yufei in the women’s singles, surrendering meekly 9-21 12-21 in just 32 minutes to draw curtains on India’s campaign.

Earlier, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lost 9-21 16-21 to the sixth-seeded Chinese pair of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu in the women’s doubles.