India’s main singles gamers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen entered the quarterfinals on the Indonesia Masters Tremendous 500 in Jakarta after straight-games wins within the spherical of 16 on Thursday. However there have been defeats for Srikanth Kidambi, Anmol Kharb and Hariharan Amsakarunan-MR Arjun within the day’s different pre-quarterfinal fixtures.
Sindhu, who started the season with a powerful semifinal run on the Malaysia Open Tremendous 1000 earlier than faltering within the first spherical at her residence occasion in India final week, got here by way of in straight video games in opposition to Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 21-19, 21-18 in 43 minutes. Notably, this was Sindhu’s five hundredth profession singles win (together with matches at age-group worldwide tournaments and crew occasions). In response to Badminton Ranks, she is now the sixth girls’s singles participant to realize this feat and the primary Indian to take action.
After a decent begin, Sindhu pulled away to a 9-5 lead and stayed in entrance for the rest of the opener regardless of the Dane threatening a few comebacks, first at 15-15 after which saving three recreation factors from 16-20 down. Within the second recreation, Kjaersfeldt had the higher hand at 9-7 however Sindhu, who fought again from 2-11 down in her opener on Wednesday, once more confirmed good bouncebackability to reel off seven straight factors and transfer in the direction of the end line. The world No 18 did shut the hole down to at least one level at 13-14, however Sindhu held her lead from there to shut the match out in straight video games.
PV Sindhu advances to the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters 2026. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)
Marathon jinx
The milestone win units up a captivating quarterfinal in opposition to high seed and World No. 4 Chen Yufei, in a rivalry that dates again to November 2015. Sindhu had the early benefit on this matchup in opposition to the Chinese language allrounder three years youthful to her. Together with her gorgeous semifinal dismantling of Chen (21-7, 21-14) throughout that well-known week in Basel when she went on to turn out to be World Champion, Sindhu opened up a 6-3 lead within the first 9 conferences.
However the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist has gained all of their final 4 conferences. Apparently, although, three of these 4 defeats for Sindhu have are available three-game marathons lasting 72, 92, and 75 minutes, respectively, and a standard thread was that she was capable of go toe-to-toe with Chen in all of these encounters however faltered within the endgame. However a rejuvenated, fitter Sindhu in the beginning of 2025 could be hoping for a special end result of their 14th assembly on Friday on the iconic Istora Senayan.
Lakshya Sen in motion on the Daihatsu Indonesia Masters 2026. (BWF/BadmintonPhoto)
In males’s singles, Lakshya produced a close to flawless efficiency in opposition to Hong Kong China’s Jason Gunawan to prevail 21-10, 21-11 in simply 33 minutes. Gunawan had no solutions to Lakshya’s pace of assaults proper by way of the match, with the Indian taking management of the mid-court properly and early. Lakshya will subsequent face 2022 World Junior Championships bronze medallist Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul within the quarterfinal. The Indian has a 1-0 Head-to-Head document in opposition to the 21-year-old Thai left-hander, who beat Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in three video games on Thursday.
There was disappointment for one in every of India’s rising shuttlers as Anmol Kharb missed a golden alternative to tug off an upset in opposition to former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara, happening 21-16, 14-21, 11-21. After taking part in some neat badminton to take the lead, Kharb misplaced management of the shuttle far too typically, and Okuhara punished her for the errors. The Indian even closed the hole right down to 10-12 within the decider however from there, her radar fully misfired in a flurry of unforced errors from the far facet as Okuhara gained the match on a run of 9 out of 10 factors.
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In males’s singles, Srikanth was outplayed by fellow veteran Chou Tien Chen 11-21, 10-21 in 32 minute,s whereas in males’s doubles, third seeds Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Win acquired the higher of Arjun and Hariharan 21-17, 9-21, 21-16.
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