Arctic Open: Lakshya Sen, Kiran George progress to Round of 16

Lakshya Sen advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Arctic Open Super 500 on Wednesday without stepping onto the court, as his opponent, Rasmus Gemke, withdrew from their opening-round match in Vantaa, Finland.

Lakshya returned to the BWF World Tour roaster at the Arctic Open for the first time since he lost the bronze-medal playoff against Lee Zii Jia at the Paris Olympics in August.

The World No. 19 Indian star will face off against seventh-seeded Chou Tien Chen in the Round of 16. Chou defeated France's Arnaud Merkle 21-16, 21-17 to set up the clash against Lakshya.

Kiran George, the other Indian shuttler in the fray on Wednesday, registered a thumping 23-21, 21-18 win over higher ranked Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei in a match that lasted 53 minutes.

Although Kiran, the qualifier, won his first round main draw quite comfortably, his real test waits in his the Round of 16, where he goes up against World No. 5 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.

On Tuesday, Malvika Bansod continued her impressive run as she defeated World No 23 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei 21-19, 24-22 to progress to the women’s singles Round of 16.

Malvika, however, will have her task cut out against the former world champion in Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.

Unnati Hooda, another promising shuttler in Indian badminton, set up a pre-quarterfinal clash against Michelle Li of Canada, who knocked PV Sindhu out of the tournament on her comeback event in the first round.

Unnati defeated Brazil’s Juliana Viana Viera 21-16, 23-25, 21-17 in her first-round match.

Also progressing was Aakarshi Kashyap as she defeated Germany’s Yvonne Li 21-19, 21-14. She will be next up against second seed Yue Han of China.