Lakshya Sen survived an all-Indian second-round battle against Kiran George to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals of the Hylo Open 2026 badminton tournament in Germany on Thursday.
Seventh seed Lakshya, 14th in the badminton rankings, was pushed to three games by world No. 55 Kiran George but eventually emerged victorious by a 21-15, 18-21, 21-12 scoreline in 54 minutes at the Saarlandhalle.
After comfortably taking the opening game, Paris 2024 Olympics semi-finalist Lakshya seemed to be running away with the match with a 15-10 lead. However, Kiran George showed immense heart to draw level at 15-all before eventually drawing level.
The decider, however, saw Lakshya get his groove back and secure his eighth win over his compatriot in nine meetings.
Lakshya is now the last remaining Indian men’s singles challenge at the BWF Super 500 meet.
PV Sindhu, meanwhile, made light work of her women’s singles round of 16 assignment. The second seed blew away France’s Rosy Oktavia Pancasari 21-9, 21-6 in just 26 minutes to set up a meeting with Denmark’s Amalie Schulz in the last eight.
Anmol Kharb, meanwhile, upset third seed and world No. 12 Line Christophersen of Denmark 11-21, 21-18, 25-23. The 53rd-ranked Indian badminton player fought back from a game down to clinch a hard-fought contest that lasted 63 minutes.
She will face fellow Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda, who defeated Denmark’s Frederikke Ostergaard 21-11, 21-19, in the last eight.
Elsewhere, Malvika Bansod went down 21-11, 21-17 to Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang, while Isharani Baruah fell 21-14, 21-19 to eighth-seeded Dane Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/hylo-open-2026-badminton-india-day-3-report
