Lakshya Sen defeated Jonathan Cristie in the All England Open to qualify for the quarter finals. The Indonesia international was defeated 13-21, 10-21. Next up, the Indian shuttler will face the winner of Li Shi Feng of China and Toma Junior Popov.
Ace shuttler Laskya Sen advanced to the All England Open quarter-final after beating defending champion Jonathan Christie 13-21,10-21. The 23-year-old was well in control of the game right from the beginning and had no trouble beating the Indonesia international, who had an extremely rough day. The world number two looked out of control on multiple occasions and Lakshya took advantage of that to get the job done.
The match lasted only 36 minutes, which tells that Lakshya was head and shoulder above Christie in the tie. The duo faced each other in the pre-quarters of the Olympics 2024 but the match on that occasion was extremely competitive. Even though Lakshya won that game, it could have gone either way.
Christie has defeated Lakshya multiple times in the past and has a better record in head-to-head competitions but in Birmingham, on March 13, he was no match to Lakshya. They faced each other in the semi-finals of the All England Open in 2024 but Christie had the last laugh on that occasion. The Indian Badminton star dominated this time around to progress to the next round.
Lakshya was terrific in maintaining his energy and momentum and his defensive techniques frustrated Christie for the longest time. He took an early lead in the first round but the Christie bounced back well to make it 6-6. Since then, it was all Lakshya as he didn’t give any room to the world number two to bounce back. The pressure was mounting on Christie and he took advantage of that, by playing aggressively and keeping the rallies short.
Next up, Lakshya will face the winner of another second-round match between sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China and Toma Junior Popov, who defeated HS Prannoy in the first round.
