World number 19 Lakshya Sen of India triumphed over Weng Hongyang with a score of 24-22, 21-15 at the Super 500 Indonesia Masters, marking his first advance to the round of 16 in five months.
Lakshya, whose world ranking once soared to 6th, had been struggling in the latter half of 2023. Starting from the Super 1000 China Open in September up until last week’s Super 750 India Open, he faced eight consecutive first-round exits.
In the next round, Lakshya will face Lu Guangzu, who overturned a match against Indonesian local star Jonatan Christie with scores of 19-21, 21-19, 21-9.
Jonatan Christie (15 September 1997) is an Indonesian male badminton player who won the 2018 Asian Games badminton title and the 2020 Thomas Cup badminton team title.
In July 2013, Jonatan played in the Indonesia International Challenge and won the men’s singles title and his first individual Badminton World Federation (BWF) International Challenge title in the men’s singles final with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) sweep of Aranshia Yunus.
Jonatan played in the 2017 Southeast Asian Games badminton tournament as Indonesia’s mainstay. In the semi-finals, Indonesia defeated the Thailand national badminton team 3-0. In the final, it helped Indonesia eliminate the Malaysian National Badminton Team 3-0 on aggregate to win the gold medal in the team event, while in the individual event, Jonatan became the double champion of the tournament after edging out Thailand’s Kohit 2-0 (21-19, 21-10) in the final.
On 17 September 2017, the BWF Super Series Korea Open came to an end, with Indonesia’s Jonatan finishing second in the men’s singles .
On 23 August 2018, the Indonesian men’s team consisting of Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Sukamuyo, Marcus Fernadi Gideon, Jonatan, Alfran Eko Prasetya, and Adrianto finished as runners-up to the Chinese men’s team after a 1-3 defeat in the men’s team final of the badminton men’s final at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
The 18th Asian Games Badminton Men’s Singles Final was won by Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie with a 2-1 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Zhou Tiancheng.
At the 2020 Asian Badminton Team Championships, Jonatan’s Indonesian team beat Malaysia to win the title. Malaysia’s Zhan Jun defeated Jonatan Christie in the final.
On 17 October 2021, Jonatan’s Indonesian team of Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Alfran and Alianto won the Thomas Cup Badminton Team Championships with a 3-0 victory over China in the final.
On 1 May 2022, Jonatan finished second in the men’s singles at the Badminton Asia 2022 Championships against Zijia Li.
In January 2023, Jonatan played in the Indonesia Badminton Masters and won his first career Super 500 men’s singles title, edging out teammate Zico 2-0 in the final.
On 17 March 2024, Jonatan won the men’s singles final of the All England Open, defeating Ginting 21-15, 21-14 after four consecutive defeats to claim his first Super 1000 title and seventh career Badminton Federation Tour men’s singles title, marking the Indonesian badminton team’s return to the top of the All-England after three decades following Albi.
On 14 April 2024, Jonathan played in the Asian Championships and won the men’s singles title, defeating Lee Shih Chun in straight sets 21-15, 21-16 in the final.
