Lakshya Sen makes second round exit from Japan Open

Osaka: Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the second round to make an early exit from the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old from Almora, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, went down 21-18 14-21 13-21 to world number 21 Nishimoto in a men’s singles match that lasted an hour and six minutes.

It was his first defeat to the Japanese in two meetings.

Fast-rising men’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, who jumped nine places to reach world number 26 after a quarterfinal finish at the World Championships, lost 21-19 21-23 15-21 to Korean combination of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho.

Mixed doubles pair of Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad lost 11-21 10-21 to Chinese top seed Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong in 23 minutes.