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Commonwealth Games champion Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men's singles second round of the Indonesia Open 2023 World Tour Super 1000 tournament with a straight-game win over Malaysia's Zii Jia Lee in Jakarta on Wednesday.
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World Championship bronze medalist and world number 20 Lakshya registered a 21-17 21-13 win over world number 11 Lee. Lakshya will next take on compatriot Kidambi Srikanth, who needed 46 minutes to get the better of China's Lu Guang Zu 21-13, 21-19 to enter his round of 16 match. The world no. 19 Indian, Lakshya, needed 33 minutes to get past world no. 11 Lee. In the opening game, the Indian youngster, who made a third-place finish at the Thailand Open followed by an opening-round exit at Singapore Open, won 21-17 before sealing the contest 21-13 in the second game.
It was their first meeting after a year since the duo last met at the Thomas Cup in May 2022, when Lakshya went down to the former world no. 2 Lee in India's crucial quarterfinal tie. With this victory, Lakshya now has a 3-1 head-to-head record against Lee.
Meanwhile, India's Priyanshu Rajawat also made it to the Indonesia Open 2023 round of 16. Priyanshu got a walkover against Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn. In the second round, however, Rajawat will not have an easy road ahead. He will take on the winner of the match between Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and second-seeded local Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The other Indian in the men's singles fray is HS Prannoy. He will take on Hong Kong's Angus Ng Ka Long in the round of 16 bout.
India's young female player Aakarshi Kashyap, however, suffered a first-round defeat in the women's singles first round. Aakarshi had no answer to Korea's second seed Aan Se Young as she went down 10-21 4-21.