Srikanth advances to Denmark Open quarters, Lakshya out (Ld)

Copenhagen, Oct 15 (IANS) Kidambi Srikanth on Thursday went through to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open while Lakshya Sen's campaign came to an end with a defeat to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.In a hard-fought tie replete with long rallies, Lakshya lost 21-15, 7-21, 17-21. The match lasted for 55 minutes with Lakshya winning the first game after winning six consecutive points from 15-15. Vittinghus, however, raced back into the match by not allowing Lakshya to cross over into double digits in the second game. Vittinghus remained ahead of Lakshya for much of the closely-fought third game. He pulled away after Lakshya reached 17 points, thus securing the match and a quarterfinal clash against Japanese sixth seed Kenta Nishimoto. Earlier, Srikanth beat Canada's Jason Anthony Ho-Shue in straight games to enter the quarterfinals. In a match that lasted 33 minutes, Srikanth won 21-15, 21-14. Back in action after seven months, Srikanth had beaten England's Toby Penty 21-12, 21-18 in his opening match on Wednesday.
--IANS rkm/arm