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In the battle between two Indian star shuttlers, Lakshya Sen breezed past HS Prannoy in the Round of 16 in the men's singles badminton event at the ongoing Paris Olympics on Thursday.
The world number 22 stormed into the quarter-finals with a straight-set 21-12, 21-6 win over world number 13 shuttler. The brimming talent of Lakshya turned out too much for Prannoy to bear despite all of his experience. The 22-year-old got off to a quick start in contrast to Prannoy's slow start. Lakshya led Prannoy 5-1, but the 32-year-old slowly gained momentum and slowly started to catch up to the youngster (7-5). Lakshya shifted through gears and took a healthy four-point lead over Prannoy, 11-7. The experienced shuttler made errors that cost throughout the first set. Lakshya maintained his cool and wrapped up the first game in 21 minutes, 21-12. In the second set, Lakshya completely took Prannoy off his game and enjoyed a 10-3 lead before the break. Lakshya continued to run away with the game against his compatriot and sealed his spot in the final eight with a dominant 21-6 win in the second set. While Lakshya kept India's hopes for a medal alive, India suffered a heartbreak in the men's doubles event. World number three ranked pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's run in the Paris Olympics concluded in the quarter-finals. Despite starting the knockout stage on a dominating note, Satwik and Chirag's hopes of returning to India with an Olympic medal were eventually crushed. With a 21-13, 14-21, 16-21 loss, Satwik and Chirag bowed out of the Paris Olympics. After Lakshya ousted his compatriot in the Round of 16, he will face the 12th-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-final on Friday. (ANI)
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