Asiad 2026: Lakshya Sen crashes out after second-round defeat vs Loh Kean | Asian Games 2026

Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen suffered a second-round exit at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, losing to former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in three games on Saturday.

The World No. 14 Sen went down 12-21 21-15 14-21 to the 2021 world champion, ranked 13th, in a battle lasting more than an hour at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium.

The defeat came just a day after the shock exit of former world No. 1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty from the men’s doubles, dealing another blow to India’s badminton campaign.

An individual medal at the Asian Games thus continued to elude Sen, who had won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and went on to finish fourth at the Paris Olympics. Check Asian Games 2026 latest news here Check Asian Games 2026 medal tally here

Sen, who has a team silver from last edition at Hangzhou, won a bronze in the team event on Wednesday.

He made a strong start and led 5-1 in the opening game, but Loh turned the contest around with a run of 10 straight points to take control and eventually pocket the game.

The Indian bounced back strongly in the second game, staying close in the early exchanges before pulling away with some aggressive attacking play towards the end to force a decider.

But the Singaporean established an 11-6 lead in the decider and maintained his advantage despite a brief fightback from Sen who reduced the deficit to 13-14 after winning four straight points, aided by a few unforced errors from Loh.

But the Singaporean regained his composure and surged to 16-14 and produced three well-constructed points to make it 19-14 before closing out the match and advancing to the pre-quarterfinals.

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