P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, India's top-ranked female and male shuttlers, respectively were knocked out of the Indonesia Masters at the quarterfinal stage on Friday.
World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya came from behind to level the second game but Chou Tien Chen, the third-seed from Chinese Taipei, was superior in the decider. After more than an hour of intriguing battle, Lakshya lost 16-21, 21-12, 14-21.
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This was Lakshya's second straight defeat against Chou in less than a month. He had lost to his Chinese Taipei rival 19-21, 21-13, 17-21 during the group stage of the Thomas Cup, before turning it around to script a historic triumph.
The 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, who had defeated Sen in the group stage of the Thomas Cup in their only previous meeting, put up a power-packed show in the decider and mounted early pressure on the 20-year-old. The World No. 4 annexed three points in a row to build a six-point lead midway into the decider.
Sen was engaged in some superb rallies towards the end and even saved two match points but his valiant effort was not good enough as the experienced 32-year-old maintained his lead to make it a 2-0 in head-to-head against sen.
Later in the day, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu lost her quarter-final against Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon 12-21, 10-21 in 33 minutes.
In the battle of the former world champions, it was Intanon who dominated from first point to last as she controlled the pace of the game.
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