Lakshya Sen Vs Koki Watanabe Highlights, Singapore Open Quarter-Final: Indian Star’s Campaign Ends In 2-1 Loss

Good evening and welcome, badminton lovers. We are building up to the start of Lakshya Sen's quarterfinal face-off with Koki Watanabe. Watch this space for pre-match info and live updates

The match follows after the ongoing mixed doubles encounter between India's Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto and Malaysia's Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei. That match is locked at 15-15 in the first game.

The Lakshya Sen vs Koki Watanabe, Singapore Open 2026 quarter-final will be live streamed on the JioHotstar app and website in India. Whether or not the match will be telecast live is currently unknown.

The preceding match has a premature end, as Toh Ee Wei suffers a bad injury that forces her to leave the court on a wheelchair. But that means Kapila-Crasto advance to the semis, and that Sen and Watanabe are taking the court soon.

After a brief break between matches, Lakshya Sen and Koki Watanabe are now on court for their quarter-final duel. They are doing some usual knocking now for warm-up, and the first game will start very soon.

The first game begins on an even keel, but Watanabe notches up a run of points to open a 5-2 lead. Still early going in the game though.

Watanabe continues to hold sway, racing to a 9-4 lead before Lakshya retaliates to bring it down to 9-7.

Lakshya is trailing but keeping in touch with the Japanese, keeping the deficit down to three at the moment. The Indian needs a string of points soon to wrest the momentum.

That's better! Sen gets the requisite string of points to draw level at 15-15. Can he take the lead now in the business end?

It continues to be a neck-and-neck affair, with both players equally well placed to take the first game. Let's see who blinks first!

The momentum swings Watanabe's way eventually, as he converts the game point at 20-19 to clinch the first game 21-19. Sen would not entirely happy with how that game went, but he has the chance to make amends soon in Game 2.

The second game begins in a similar vein as the first, with neither playing holding a clear advantage and service switching hands rapidly. It is level at 5-5 currently.

A forehand lift from Sen goes wide, and the second game stands at 7-8 in the Japanese' favour. Remember that Lakshya must win this game, if he has to keep his Singapore Open campaign alive.

After losing a close first set, Lakshya Sen makes a remarkable comeback to win the second game by 21-15. With this the match moves into the third and deciding game 3.

It's a neck-to-neck battle going on in the final and deciding set with the Japanese star leading marginally against his Indian counterpart by 14-12.

An intense battle was going on in the final game but Watanabe elevated his game at the right moment and his Indian counterpart had no answers to it. Watanabe wins the third game by 21-15 to win the match by 2-1.

That's a wrap! That's a wrap from our end. We'll be back soon with another blog, until then, bye bye.