India Open: Lakshya Sen goes down to Rasmus Gemke after intense battle; India's challenge ends in men's single

New Delhi, Jan 19: India's challenge in the men's singles of the India Open ended on Thursday as defending champion Lakshya Sen went down in a closely-fought match to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 21-16, 15-21, 18-21 at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall of IG Stadium.

India's World No. 1 started the game on a bright note as he took the first game with some comfort. However, World No.20 Gemke used his experience to advantage by taking the next two games under pressure with a boisterous crowd cheering against him.

Lakshya takes first game with momentum gained in second half

The duo was involved in a sea-saw battle from the first game but Lakshya Sen maintained a two-point lead halfway at 12-10 with the home crowd backing him. The 21-year-old shuttler then stretched his lead to 17-12 at a crucial juncture of the game with his neatly-placed returns and smashes.

Gemke then lost a review as Sen made an inch-perfect back-court return to make it 18-13 and made the best use of the momentum gained by closing the game 21-16.
Gemke responds strongly in the second game.

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Gemke, however, was not in a mood to surrender as he came back strong in the second game by killing off point quickly to take a 6-3 lead early on.
Lakshya made a sincere effort to close the lead as he dominated the rallies but Gemke went into the halfway stage with an 11-9 lead.

Gemke then picked three quick points to stretch his lead but Lakshya reacted with a powerful smash to cut down the gap to 10-14. The Danish continued to draw Lakshya closer to the net and the strategy worked in his favour as he opened a huge gap of 12-19.

Lakshya reacted with two consecutive smashes to keep himself in the game but Gemke eventually took the game 21-15 to force the game into the third and decisive game.

Gemke makes most of error-prone Lakshya at India Open

Gemke took the momentum forward from the last game by quickly taking 3-0 lead in the decider as Lakshya committed a few unforced errors. Gemke made the most of Sen's lost focus as he opened a six-point lead to 7-1.

Lakshya then earned two consecutive points to get the crowd on their feet again and the Indian soon cut down the gap to 5-8 before his Danish rival responded with a smash on his body.

The battle got intense from this point onwards as the duo was involved in some long rallies. Sen, however, made a couple of errors on the smash again to head into the halfway stage of the game trailing 7-11.

Gemke pulled a further gap after the break as he stretched his lead by two points quickly to make it 13-7.

Sen, however, never surrendered and with the crowd getting boisterous with every point he picked, the home favourite closed down the gap to 13-14 to keep the game wide open.

The long rallies only got intense from this point onwards with Gemke dominating them. However, Lakshya remained adamant and patiently kept the game open at 18-19.

Gemke had his slice of luck at this point as his smash landed on Lakshya's court after rubbing the net. Gemke then took the match-winning point after a long and intense rally as Lakshya'a back-handed return landed outside the backcourt.