Lakshya Sen crashes out of Malaysia Open 2026, loses to Lee Cheuk Yiu

Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], January 8 (ANI): India's Lakshya Sen crashed out of the Malaysia Open 2026 badminton tournament, losing to Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Lakshya Sen, 13th in the badminton rankings, lost 22-20, 21-15 against world No. 18 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong, China in 53 minutes, as per Olympics.com.
The 24-year-old Indian shuttler had a promising start, leading 11-9 at the interval and even holding four game points in the opening game. However, Lee Cheuk Yiu's six consecutive points turned the tide, and he took the opener in a tie-break. Sen couldn't recover, losing the second game as well.
This was Lakshya Sen's third defeat in five matches against Lee Cheuk Yiu.
Earlier in the day, India's two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and the men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the quarterfinals.
Competing in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 1000 event, the former world champion outplayed eighth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan to book her place in the final eight.
The two-time Olympian, currently ranked 18th in the BWF women's singles rankings, defeated world No. 33 Sung Shuo-yun of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 22-20 to advance to the second round in her first-round match. Sindhu dominated the opening game, 21-8, and maintained momentum to seal the match 21-13 in the second game.
Sindhu will next face the winner of the clash between China's Gao Fang Jie and third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarterfinals.
In men's doubles, third seeds Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also advanced after securing a 21-18, 21-11 win over Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 39 minutes.
With the victory, the Indians extended their head-to-head record against the Malaysian pair to 4-0.They will next face the winners of the clash between Chinese Taipei's Chen Zhi Ray/Lin Yu Chieh and sixth seeds Fajar Alfian/Fikri Muhammad of Indonesia.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj had moved to the second round, beating Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan 21-13, 21-15 in a match that lasted just 35 minutes. (ANI)