US Open: Lakshya, Sankar set up all-Indian quarter-finals, Sindhu faces Gao

Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen and S Sankar Muthuswamy won their respective pre-quarterfinal matches to set up an all-Indian quarterfinal clash in the US Open 2023 on Thursday.

On the other hand, PV Sindhu also notched up a straight games win to progress to the quarterfinal of women's singles.

S Sankar Muthuswamy continued his winning run as he defeated World rank 35 Misha Zilberman of Israel in a three-set match. The 2022 World Championships silver medalist won the game with a score of 21-18, 21-23, 21-13.

Lakshya Sen faced some serious challenges from 39-year-old Jan Louda but he came out unscathed from the match to win the game 21-8, 23-21.

Sen too blazed his way to a 6-1 lead and then jumped to 17-5 in an instant to take it away from his opponent in the opening game. The 39-year-old Czech, however, made a remarkable comeback in the second game, making life tough for Sen.

Jan was 8-5 up and also held a 19-14 advantage, giving hope for a reversal but Sen scripted a sensational recovery with five points to claw back at 19-19. Sen then saved a game point to close out the match after some tight rallies.

Lakshya Sen and 19-year-old S Sankar Muthuswamy will take on each other in the quarterfinals assuring one Indian semi-final appearance in the tournament.

Seeded third in the tournament, PV Sindhu glided past her Korean opponent Sung Shuo Yun 21-14, 21-12 to reach the quarterfinals.

It was not much of a problem for the double Olympic medalist Sindhu as she blazed past the Korean in the first game winning int 21-14.

After the change of sides, Sung started to match up to the Indian initially as she had a slender 5-3 lead but it soon evaporated with Sindhu breaking off from 7-7 to march ahead.

At the interval, Sindhu had an 11-8 lead and kept moving ahead as Sung crumbled. From 16-12, Sindhu reeled off the remaining points without much ado.

Sindhu will take on China's Gao Fang Jie in the quarterfinals.