Sen sails into third round of World Boxing C’ships

Copenhagen: Former champion PV Sindhu’s wretched run continued as she bowed out of the World Championships but Lakshya Sen advanced to the third round with a straight-game demolition of Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin in men’s singles here on Tuesday.

The most successful Indian at World Championships with five medals, Sindhu lacked any sting in her attack and went down tamely 14-21 14-21 to old nemesis Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, a 2017 gold medallist and silver winner in 2019.

It is the first time in her career that Sindhu, seeded 16th, has failed to reach the quarterfinals at the prestigious tournament.

In men’s singles, Sen, bronze medallist at the 2021 edition, prevailed 21-11 21-12 over the world number 51 Korean.

The Indian, thus, settled his score against the Korean, who had defeated him in their only meeting at the Asia Team Championship in 2022.

The 11th seeded Indian is likely to face third seeded Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand in the next round. Sen has a 4-5 head-to-head count against Vitidsarn, whom he had defeated on way to Canada Open Super 500 title. Sen was alert and took the initiatives during the rallies, showing his retrieval skills, speed and shot selection to dominate the proceedings.

The Indian lead 5-1 and slowly kept extending the gap against a struggling Jeon, who lacked the finishing punch during the fast-paced rallies.agencies

Sen entered the interval with 11-6 lead and kept things under a firm grip even after resumption to quickly move to 18-11 before sealing the first game with three straight points. In the second game, Sen opened up a 4-1 lead before extending it to 10-5 with a whipping forehand return. Another straight jump smash helped the Indian make it 11-5 at the break.