- By Namrata Vijay
- Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Paris Olympics 2024: The 22-year-old Lakshya Sen has reached the quarterfinals of the men's singles event after defeating HS Prannoy in straight games on Thursday. The match was being held at the La Chapelle Arenas Court 3, where Lakshya thrashed Prannoy 21-12, 21-6 in a match that went for about 39 minutes and has qualified for the next round in his debut Olympics.
Prannoy didn't put up any fight against Lakshya as he was visibly exhausted by his match against Vietnam's Le Duc Phat on Wednesday. Prannoy had won an exhausting 3-game match against Phat as the Vietnamese tested his skills to the core. His exhaustion from the last game along with a Chikungunya fever last month affected his body. He looked extremely exhausted in the middle of the second game, where Lakshya was leading by 11-3. He failed to bounce back in the second half of the second game and thus lost the match by 21-6 and was eliminated from the Round of 16 in his debut and last Olympic game.
The match began rather slowly as both Lakshya and HS Prannoy were trying to give each other an edge. The first half of the first game had a rally of 47 long shots as the players were judging the speed of the game. Prannoy began slowly as he was lagging by 5-1. Lakshya was brilliant in his defenses as he was able to face Prannoy's smashes with his backhand and attacked Prannoy with a few down-the-line smashes.
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In the first game, Lakshya was leading by 11-6 and then continued attacking Prannoy in flat exchanges. Prannoy tried to catch up while he was trailing by 13-7 and attacked Lakshya by playing backhand aggressively. Prannoy tried to attack Lakshya with cross-court smashes with his forehand side. Lakshya looked in trouble a few times as Prannoy changed his attack continuously and tried to catch up with Lakshya on the down-the-line smashes. But Prannoy's unforced errors at the wide section had put him on the backside and lost the match 21-12.
The second game was quite a landslide against the veteran. Lakshya, who is in some sublime form in the ongoing mega-event, dominated him. As Prannoy's exhaustion crept in, he wasn't able to defend himself on the wide sides and thus gave away 10 match points.
Lakshya will lock horns with Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen in the quarterfinals. He has played against him four times and has a head-to-head record of 1-3. They last played against each other in the Singapore Open 2023, where Lakshya had defeated the Chinese in the 3-game battle.