Indonesia Masters 2024: Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat Bow Out In Second Round; Kiran George Keeps Indian Challenge Alive

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India's Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat exited the Indonesia Masters 2024 following straight games loss in their respective men's singles match on Thursday (January 25) at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sen, who is looking to qualify for Paris Olympics, went down fighting to eighth seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark by a scoreline of 19-21, 18-21 in the men's singles pre-quarterfinal match that lasted an hour and a minute on Court 1.

Rajawat, meanwhile, suffered a loss to Canada's Brian Yang by a scoreline of 18-21, 14-21 in the men's singles second round match that lasted for 42 minutes on Court 3.

Following those two results, the onus was on Kiran George to keep India's challenge alive in the Indonesia Masters 2024. And the 23-year-old delivered with a hard-fought victory over China's Lu Guang Xu in the men's singles match.

George, who came through the qualifiers in the tournament, defeated the Chinese shuttler by a scoreline of 21-11, 13-21, 21-18 in the second round match that lasted an hour and four minutes on court 3.

The Kochi-born shuttler will hope his dream run continues when he next faces a tougher opponent in sixth Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the quarterfinal on Friday (January 26). This will be their first meeting at senior level, having shared 1 win each in junior level tournaments.

Earlier on Wednesday (January 24), senior shuttlers HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth suffered first round exits from the Indonesia Open 2024 following defeats in three-game thrillers.

World no. 8 Prannoy, who had reached the semifinals at India Open Super 750 last week, lost to former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 18-21, 21-19, 10-21 in his opening round match that lasted an hour.

The 31-year-old Indian, who claimed maiden bronze medals at the Asian Games and world championships last year, had lost in the first round at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament as well.

For former world no. 1 Srikanth, it was yet another day when he had to return empty handed despite putting up a brave effort against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, ranked 10th.

Srikanth, who is racing against time to qualify for Paris, squandered an opening game advantage to lose 21-19, 14-21, 11-21 to Lee in a 54-minutes clash to bow out of tournament. It was his second successive first-round loss of the season.