Auckland: Young Indian shuttler and former Junior World No.1 Lakshya Sen made it to the main draw of New Zealand Open badminton tournament after getting the better of compatriot Ajay Jayaram and Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo in his qualifying round matches here, Tuesday.
Up against Jayaram a senior and more experienced compatriot, Lakshya showed a lot of determination as he won 21-18 21-13 in his first qualifying match that lasted 31 minutes. He then took 32 minutes to thrash Zhi Soo 21-11, 21-12 in his second qualifier and storm into the main draw of the men’s singles.
In the main draw, the 17-year-old will be up against Wang Tzu Wei of Taipei in his opening round, a player whom Lakshya has beaten in the past.
Another Indian in the fray, Parupalli Kashyap failed to make the main round as he lost his second qualifying match. Kashyap put up an impressive show in his opening qualifier, beating Peter Yan of Australia 21-8, 21-9 in just 26 minutes but could not cross the second hurdle, going down 16-21, 18-21 to Sun Feixiang of China in a battle that lasted 42 minutes.
The main draw matches will commence Wednesday.