The Arctic Open Super 500 tournament’s top shuttler from India, Lakshya Sen, advanced to the men’s singles round of 16 when opponent Rasmus Gemke withdrew from their first round match on Wednesday.

Sen, who was denied her first Olympic medal in Paris after her loss in the bronze medal play-off, will face the victor of the match between French qualifier Arnaud Merkle and seventh seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the next round.

Qualifier The only other Indian active on Wednesday is Kiran George. Later in the day, he will face Chinese Taiwan’s Tzu Wei Wang.

Earlier on Tuesday, world No. 23 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei was defeated by rising Indian shuttler Malvika Bansod in a surprising upset to progress to the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals. Bansod has been in good form this year.

The 23-year-old southpaw, who won her first championship in more than two years at the Azerbaijan International in February, persevered through a tough contest, taking the score to 21-19, 24-22 after 57 minutes.

But when the Nagpur shuttler gets ready to take on Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, a previous world champion, in the second round, the task will become more intense.

Unnati Hooda, another talented Indian shuttler, upset Juliana Viana Viera of Brazil 21-16, 23-25, 21-17 to earn a matchup with Canadian Michelle Li.

On Tuesday night, rising player Aakarshi Kashyap also made it to the round of 16, defeating Yvonne Li of Germany 21-19, 21-14. She will next face Yue Han, the second-seeded player from China.