Lakshya Sen and women’s doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy exited the All England Championships, losing their quarterfinal matches in Birmingham on Friday. Nineteen-year-old Lakshya went down fighting against Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands 17-21, 21-16, 17-21 in the last eight stages. The Indian youngster gave a good account of himself in the manner he fought back after losing the first game. In the decider too, Lakshya played quite well, but the big lead he conceded in the early part of the game affected his chances. Trailing 11-16, Lakshya came up with a five-point burst to catch up with Mark. But from 18-17, Mark scored three straight points to clinch the decider. Meanwhile, All England witnessed the biggest upset as world No.1 Kento Momota suffered a stunning defeat against Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 16-21, 19-21. Lee will face Mark in the semifinals. Earlier, Ashwini and Sikki squandered five game points and lost to Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen of The Netherlands 22-24, 12-21. The Indian girls were within striking distance when they were leading at 20-17 in the first game. The Dutch girls, however, were in no mood to relent and saved three game points. At 20-20, the Indians scored two more points before their opponents won the first game with three straight points from 21-22. Disappointed after losing the first game from such a dominant position the Indians lost rhythm in the second. They conceded a 0-4 lead and trailed their opponents by 4-11 and lost the game at 12-21. Ashwini Ponnappa said that they struggled to control the shuttle due to sideways drift. “We struggled to control the shuttle. There was a sideways drift and we were finding it hard to keep it in. We went too hard; maybe we should’ve been a lot more patient. But there are positives to take from this tournament, particularly our win yesterday over the Stoevas where we made very few mistakes. That’s the way going forward,” Ashwini told BWF website. World champion PV Sindhu will face Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals late on Friday.
Akane Yamaguchi has a slightly unsettling relationship with discomfort – much to her opponents’ dismay, it’s unsettling for the opponents. The Japanese is comfortable with irritants. Tall rivals, fast rivals, clever rivals, Japanese rivals, calm rivals, tempestuous rivals and rivals going by the name Carolina Marin: Yamaguchi can counter all manners of games and conditions, with an expressive shaking of her floppy hair.
The biggest mistake an opponent can make before putting a lid on her busy-bee prancing game, is to think that Yamaguchi can be cornered. PV Sindhu, chasing her first All England crown, runs into this yo-yo ball, who has played just one international match in 2021 – the opener at Birmingham.
🗣 “I have to be prepared for everything and anything.”
— 🏆 Yonex All England Badminton Championships 🏆 (@YonexAllEngland) March 18, 2021
Her second-round opponent from Turkey was withdrawn following a Covid trace and test scare. Admittedly, Yamaguchi runs into Sindhu on the back of a long layoff dating back to last All England.
The one exception to be seriously considered though, is Japan’s National championship, where she lost 22-20 in the third to Nozomi Okuhara. The senior Japanese has spent most of 2020 training in lockdown at Olympics’ Ground Zero improving her footwork to deal with Yamaguchi’s tricky returns.
So Sindhu might want to remember that opponents from powerhouses like Japan, have no dearth of competitive domestic sparring. So Yamaguchi’s relative rustiness might not be the comfort to lean on.
Sindhu leads Yamaguchi 10-7. She’s become a World Champion since that particular statistic froze. But the tricky returns that Okuhara is fixated on, are bubbling like always in Yamaguchi’s repertoire.
Sindhu’s reach can torment Yamaguchi. Her aggression, not as much as it works against the relatively shorter players like Okuhara, Chen Yufei and Tai Tzu Ying. For Yamaguchi brings her own attack into the mix. She has a respectable smash kill and a defense that may leak points initially when Sindhu powers her cross-court deep smashes along the lines. But Yamaguchi likes her back and forths: a string of deflated errors is not exactly what she concedes. There will be resistance even if Sindhu takes off in one of her rampaging starts.
Playing her first match, Yamaguchi had frowned about the air-conditioning and drift irritating her, till the end of the match she won 14, 17. No audience means the winds blow “here and there” like Sindhu herself pointed out. It will be an exciting pitting of wits between the two women, who’ve never won All England, and are being guided by Korean coaches. Both are fresh relatively, not really stretched in their outings the last two days. Both believe in sweetly conveying that there will be no quarter given.
Big Mark Caljouw stands in Sen’s way to semis
Lakshya Sen ought to start as favourite against World No 36 Mark Caljouw. (File)
A hulking Dutchman Mark Caljouw stands in the way of Lakshya Sen making the All England semis in only his second outing at Birmingham.
“He should mentally be prepared for a long match.The Dutch guy is big and has a good defense. Lakshya should not get desperate and should attack at the right time,” Sen’s coach Vimal Kumar said.
Sen’s last match at 2020’s All England was against Viktor Axelsen, who posed a similar problem to the Indian. “He has a good defense and has been playing well. He got the better of Prannoy in the Swiss Open last week,” he added.
Lakshya tends to get a bit frustrated against retrievers. “He is very tall and has a good hit as well. He has beaten Lakshya in one of the PBL games,” the coach added.
It’s been a torrid 6 months for Lakshya, starting with Germany where his father would test positive, and Lakshya wasbarred from playing. “Lakshya has nothing to lose and a win can give him a lot of confidence considering the misery he went through last 6 months. Back injury, COVID,” Vimal said.
But at Birmingham, he’s looked in good touch. “He has no issues last 3 weeks and when he played in the Swiss he just did not have the confidence. Hope a few wins and more matches can help him play at a similar level like early last year,” the coach said.
Sen ought to start as favourite against World No 36 Caljouw, four years his senior. Ranked at No 28, Sen will back himself to make the semis, given the confident manner in which he has strided forward against Kantaphon Wangcharoen and Thomas Rouxel on two consecutive days.
Historically prone to fading off as the match progressed, Sen has shown massive improvements in grabbing the initiative and finishing the job with his mix of aggression and a solid end-game.
What he will need to guard against when taking on the Dutch shuttler, is the relative ease with which Caljouw can tackle Indian players.
He is on 8-3 wins against Indians in the last four years, and tends to play a disarming, harmless game, chipping away before shifting gears to bring in the bulk.
Sen, who’s looked solid, minus any hiccups, will relish the opportunity to make his maiden semis and is capable of playing the composed game. And break the chain of Indians who seem to end up on the losing side against Caljouw.
PV Sindhu and teen shuttler Lakshya Sen marched into the quarterfinals of the All England Open Championships, while HS Prannoy and Sai Praneeth lost their second round matches in Birmingham on Thursday. Sindhu took just 25 minutes to thrash Line Christophersen of Denmark 21-8, 21-8 in the second round. The fifth seeded Indian will face familiar foe Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarterfinals on Friday. Yamaguchi got a walkover in the second round. World No.7 Sindhu enjoys a 10-7 win-loss record against Yamaguchi. Earlier, Lakshya downed Thomas Rouxel of France 21-18, 21-17, hours after defeating World No.18 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-18, 21-12 in the first round. The World No.28 has a good chance of reaching the semifinals as he will face Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands who defeated Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. This will be the first meeting between the two. Late on Wednesday, Saina Nehwal retired in the middle of the second game against Mia Blichfeldt. The Dane was leading 21-8, 10-4 when Saina quit. The Indian team informed TOI that Saina suffered a right thigh muscle pull. Though he played well, Prannoy was unable to stop Kento Momota of Japan 15-21, 14-21. Sai, meanwhile, looked like upsetting Viktor Axelsen of Denmark when he won the first game and led 5-0 in the second game. However, the Dane came back to dominate the Indian in the latter part of the match 15-21, 21-12, 21-12. Meanwhile, the entire Indonesian team and a Turkish women’s singles player were withdrawn from the tournament after a passenger who travelled on the same flight tested positive for Covid-19. Some Indonesian players like their top seeded men’s doubles team have already completed their first round matches. Dhruv Kapila and Jakkampudi Meghana benefitted by the withdrawal of Indonesian top mixed doubles team of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. However, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Sikki Reddy lost their first round matches. Pranaav and Sikki lost to Rasmus Espersen and Christine Busch of Denmark 15-21, 17-21. Satwik-Ashwini lost 21-19, 21-9 to Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo of Japan.
PV Sindhu, teen shuttler Lakshya Sen and the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy marched into the quarterfinals of the All England Open Championships, while HS Prannoy, Sai Praneeth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty lost their second round matches in Birmingham on Thursday. Sindhu took just 25 minutes to thrash Line Christophersen of Denmark 21-8, 21-8 in the second round. The fifth-seeded Indian will face Akane Yamaguchi of Japan on Friday. Yamaguchi got a walkover in the second round. World No.7 Sindhu enjoys a 10-7 win-loss record against Yamaguchi. Earlier, Lakshya downed Thomas Rouxel of France 21-18, 21-17, hours after defeating world No.18 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-18, 21-12 in the first round. The world No.28 will face Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands who defeated Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. This will be the first meeting between the two. Unseeded Indians Ashwini-Sikki upset sixth seeds Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva 21-17, 21-10. However, Satwik-Chirag once again faltered against Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 16-21, 21-11, 17-21. Late on Wednesday, Saina Nehwal retired in the middle of the second game against Mia Blichfeldt. The Dane was leading 21-8, 10-4 when Saina quit. The Indian team informed TOI that Saina suffered a right thigh muscle pull. Though he played well, Prannoy was unable to stop Kento Momota of Japan and lost 15-21, 14-21. Sai, meanwhile, looked like upsetting Viktor Axelsen of Denmark when he won the first game and led 5-0 in the second game. However, the Dane won 15-21, 21-12, 21-12. Meanwhile, the entire Indonesian team and a Turkish women’s singles player were withdrawn from the tournament after a passenger who travelled on the same flight tested positive for Covid-19. Some Indonesian players like their top seeded men’s doubles team have already completed their first round matches. Dhruv Kapila and Jakkampudi Meghana benefitted by the withdrawal of Indonesian top mixed doubles team of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. However, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Sikki Reddy lost their first round matches. Pranaav and Sikki lost to Rasmus Espersen and Christine Busch of Denmark 15-21, 17-21. Satwik-Ashwini lost 21-19, 21-9 to Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo of Japan.
BIRMINGHAM: The Indian badminton contingent has been cleared to participate in the All England Championships after the players, who had tested positive for COVID-19, returned negative in retests conducted by the governing body (BWF) on Wednesday. Three Indian shuttlers and a support staff had tested positive on Tuesday while a few were awaiting confirmation on their inconclusive samples, leaving the players without much practice ahead of the tournament. “No positive tests in the team anyone. We are ready for All England,” wrote India’s Danish foreign coach Mathais Boe in a post in Instagram.
In an email to team managers on Wednesday, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Badminton England also informed that “following further investigations and testing, all team members have been returned to the draw having successfully retested negative.” It also said that “following a higher-than-expected number of inconclusive and positive tests, a full investigation into the testing and laboratory process was conducted in consultation with representatives from Public Health England and the testing companies involved. “During the process of that investigation, sufficient doubt was raised over the accuracy of the batches of tests submitted by Badminton England, that it was deemed appropriate to retest. “Following the retest and further investigations, it has been determined that the result of the retest will be one used.” Earlier, BWF and Badminton England had delayed the start of the event by a couple of hours following a “significant number” of inconclusive COVID-19 test results. The prestigious Super 1000 tournament was earlier scheduled to start at 9 am GMT. The Indian campaign was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after reports emerged that three players and a support staff had tested positive for COVID-19. India’s badminton couple Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap were also left confused less than 24 hours before the start of the tournament after the latter’s tests for COVID-19 came “inconclusive”. Saina too is waiting for her results for her COVID-19 tests and the duo had taken to Twitter to express their displeasure.
Ok I have to do this now ! Matches are starting tomorrow at the @YonexAllEngland and still no reports of the Covid… https://t.co/rpDU6k6Ejr
Saina and HS Prannoy had to go through a similar experience in Thailand in January when they had returned positive in a COVID-19 test but was cleared to compete later after further investigation. Last October, Lakshya Sen alongwith Ajay Jayaram and Shubhankar Dey were forced out of the SaarLorLux Open after DK Sen had tested positive for COVID-19.
Lakshya Sen ought to start as favourite against World No 36 Mark Caljouw. (File)