Indonesia Masters: Kiran George reaches quarters, Lakshya, Priyanshu out

Indian youngster Kiran George continued his good run in the Indonesia Masters after defeating world number 18 Lu Guang Zu of China to enter the quarter-finals on Thursday.

While Kiran continued his good run, Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat lost their respective matches to end their run in the tournament.

Kiran defeated Lu Guang Zu in three games 21-11, 13-21, 21-18 in a match that went on for 64 minutes. Kiran started the match with a comfortable win in the first game.

But Lu came back stronger in the second game to force a decider. In the final game, Kiran was behind 9-12 but forced Lu into committing errors and won the match 21-18.

He will now face reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the quarterfinal. Kiran has been on a good run in the tournament after winning two matches in the qualifiers to make it to the main draw and then defeating higher-ranked Toma Popov Junior in the first round.

In other men's singles matches, Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat lost to Anders Antonsen and Brian Yang respectively.

Taking on eighth-seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, Sen came up with a strong fight but went down 19-21, 18-21. He had beaten Weng Hongyang of China in the opening round 24-22 21-15.

Lakshya started well against Anders and took a lead of 7-3 but Antonsen went on a point-winning spree and made it 13-7. Sen tried to fight back but lost the first game 21-19.

In the second game, both shuttlers started well and it was a neck-to-neck battle until Antonsen won two consecutive points at 17-17 to take the control and win the match.

Rajawat was up against Brian Yang of Canada after his conquest over Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the first round 21-18 21-19.

Although Rajawat produced a great show in the opening game against the Canadian, it wasn't enough as he lost 18-21 14-21 to bow out of the competition.