Auckland: Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen advanced to the main draw of the New Zealand Open after defeating compatriot Ajay Jayaram and Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo in his qualifying round matches on Tuesday, April 30.
Lakshya showed a lot of determination as he handed experienced Jayaram a 21-18, 21-13 defeat in his first qualifying match, which lasted for 31 minutes. He then thrashed Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo 21-11, 21-12 in his second qualifier to enter the main draw of the men’s singles.
However, Parupalli Kashyap failed to advance to the main round as he went down in his second qualifying match. Kashyap outclassed Peter Yan of Australia 21-8, 21-9 in just 26 minutes in the first affair but suffered a 16-21, 18-21 defeat against Sun Feixiang of China.
