Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen clinched his big victory after several months, as he got the better of World No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark to storm into the quarterfinals of the All England Open Badminton Championship on Thursday.
Lakshya Sen, 22, had a tough time leading up to the All England Open tournament. His seven consecutive first-round losses led to doubts over Paris Olympics qualification. The Commonwealth Games champion also parted ways with coach Anup Sridhar.
Sen follows the mindset of Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar, his coach, where persistence and hard work have no alternative. He ousted Anders Antonsen 24-22, 11-21, 21-14 after wasting four game-point opportunities.
The Danish had totally drained the Indian at 8-2 in the second game before he staged a sensational comeback to make it 13-all. He won eight straight points to close the contest. The match lasted 80 minutes.
Sen registered his second win against Antonsen, who won the Malaysia Open and Indonesia Masters, among other tournaments, in five outings.
The youngster tried his best not to commit errors in the decider, which worked in his favour as the Dane looked complacent at one stage of the match.
Sen will meet Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, who won the All England tournament in 2021, on Friday.
PV Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag out of contention in All England Open 2024
PV Sindhu lost 19-21, 11-21 to World No. 1 and her nemesis, An Se Young, in Round 2. Young defeated the Indian who's had a recurring knee issue.
It was Sindhu's seventh successive loss to Young, who had become the first Korean woman singles player to win the World Championships last year. She won in Malaysia and France this season.
On the other hand, Sindhu is slowly crawling back to her potential after recovering from a left knee injury. The Indian tried her best to attack but could not keep up with the pace of the rallies.
World No. 1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the French Open last week, started their campaign on a winning note as they overcame the tricky pair of Indonesia comprising Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. But the Indian doubles pair bowed out in straight games after losing to Indonesian pair of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana. They lost 16-21, 15-21 in just over an hour.
In women's doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa crashed out. They lost 21-11. 11-21, 11-21 to Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China.
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