Paris [France]: Ahead of his men’s singles quaterfinals match in the Paris Olympics, Indian Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen received some words of encouragement from two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu.
In the battle between two Indian star shuttlers, Lakshya breezed past HS Prannoy in the Round of 16 in the men’s singles badminton event at the ongoing Paris Olympics on Thursday. The world number 22 stormed into the quarter-finals with a straight-set 21-12, 21-6 win over world number 13 shuttler.
Speaking as quoted by Olympics.com, Sindhu said for Lakshya, “I wish him all the very best and I hope he does well. It is his first Olympics, so I want him to give his best and give his 100 per cent.”
The brimming talent of Lakshya turned out too much for Prannoy to bear despite all of his experience. The 22-year-old got off to a quick start in contrast to Prannoy’s slow start.
Lakshya will face the 12th-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-final on Friday.
After securing a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a Tokyo Olympics bronze medal, Sindhu returned home empty-handed for the first time in her career in the Olympics.
Sindhu was one of India’s brightest medal prospects and was targeting a historic hat-trick of medals. India suffered another setback in the quest for a medal in badminton after Sindhu crashed down in the women’s singles Round of 16.
She fell against sixth-seeded Chinese shuttler He Bing Jiao in straight sets 19-21, 14-21. The defeat marked the first time Sindhu failed to win an Olympic medal.
The veteran said that she could have done better in the first game, which was tied at 19-19 at one point.
“It is sad that I could not get the result that I wanted but at the Olympics, everybody wants to win. Unfortunately, that could not happen or it did not go the right way for me,” stated Sindhu.
“The first game should have been a bit different, especially at 19-19. It was anybody’s game. Maybe if I had won the first set it would have been different. Overall I just felt that it is a sad day but I need to keep my head high,” concluded the shuttler.