Indian shuttlers faced a disappointing end to their Arctic Open campaign in Finland on Thursday, with all representatives bowing out in the pre-quarterfinals.
Lakshya Sen, India’s top-ranked player, squandered a one-game lead to lose 21-19, 18-21, 15-21 to seventh-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. The match lasted an arduous one hour and 10 minutes.
Qualifier Kiran George, who had upset World No. 25 Wang Tzu Wei in the first round, was outplayed 17-21, 8-21 by fifth-seeded Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
In the women’s singles, Malvika Bansod fell 15-21, 8-21 to former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. Unnati Hooda and Aakarshi Kashyap also suffered defeats in their respective matches.
Unnati lost 10-21, 19-21 to Canada’s Michelle Li, while Aakarshi went down 9-21, 8-21 to second-seeded Han Yue of China.
The mixed doubles pair of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath lost 12-21, 15-21 to the Chinese duo of Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi.
In the final Indian match of the day, the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda were defeated 8-21, 10-21 by top seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China.
The Arctic Open is a Super 500 tournament on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour.
