Lakshya Sen vs Kidambi Srikanth in Indonesia Open pre-quarters

“I think for now I will probably temporarily quit badminton. I don’t know how long I’ll take, but I will quit badminton until I get the motivation again. I will take a break and rest for a while,” he told BWF. “Maybe I will stop playing tournaments. I have been considering this for long. It’s too much for me on the court. I can’t concentrate 100 percent. It will be good for me to take a break. The priority is to find my passion on court. I did well at the Sudirman Cup but I haven’t done much different after that.”

Sen, who had beaten Lee at the All England but lost to him at Thomas Cup, knew what to expect: the Malaysian is strong at the net, goes about spin dribbling which sets up the midcourt hit. Sen, ranked 21, was prepared. “He played well with a fixed strategy today,” coach Anup Sridhar said. “Against Chou Tien Chen last week, he was not varying the pace from the back of the court. He did better today,” he added.

Sen was hitting the straight smashes and the sliced returns as well as straight shots on the lines well in the opener, before he fell back 10-13 and 12-15. But Sen stuck to his strategy, and slowed down the pace thereafter. He would level at 16-16, as Lee got himself into a funk, and committed errors in the middle of smashing winners. At 20-17, with a tight net exchange on, Lee sent one long, and the next error meant Sen had the set at 21-17.

Lee looked down and out, and unfocused in the second set, as Sen led 12-3, before the Malaysian launched a few counters. He would close in to 15-11 with his smashes, but the lead was far too large and Sen went for the power kill on 19-12. On the final point, Lee drifted wide, and proceeded to tell the BWF he was taking a break.

Sen next plays Kidambi Srikanth, who beat Chinese Lu Guang Zu, 21-13, 21-19, but not without some torrid reminders of last week in Singapore. He had gone from leading 19-12 to losing 21-19 against Chia then. Leading 18-11 against Lu in the second, he allowed the Chinese to reach 19-19 before closing out the set, biting back fears of a recap of the Singapore ouster.

India will have one sure quarterfinalist and four in the Last 16, with HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat also featuring, the latter after receiving a walkover from Kunlavut Vitidsarn.