Lakshya crashes out in quarter-finals

The match, which lasted 55 minutes, saw the end of Indian challenge in men’s singles. The women’s doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out of the tournament following its defeat in straight games to the Dutch combination of Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen in the quarter-finals.

The World No.30 Indian pairing went down 22-24, 12-21 to 24th-ranked duo of Selena and Cheryl in 39 minutes. Ashwini and Sikki had defeated 13th-ranked duo of Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva 21-17, 21-10 in just 33 minutes in the second-round match on Thursday.

World No.10 men’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded sixth, had crashed out of the event after losing 16-21, 21-11, 17-21 to Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the second round. It was its second consecutive defeat against the World No.13 combination, having lost at the Swiss Open earlier this month.

In men’s singles, Sameer Verma too suffered a second successive loss to third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, going down 20-22, 10-21 in the second round. The mixed pairing of Dhruv Kapila and Meghana Jakkampudi also bowed out after losing 19-21, 8-21 to Niclas Nohr and Amalie Magelund of Denmark.

Caljouw, who had defeated Lakshya once before, clinched the first game 21-17 in 17 minutes. Lakshya, 19, bounced back in the second game, opening up a lead of 11-6 and later sealing it 21-16 to stay alive in the contest. World No.36 Caljouw, however, won the last game 21-17 to clinch the last-eight match.