All England Badminton Championships: Lakshya Sen stuns Anders Antonsen into quarter-finals
Lakshya Sen, who had finished second at the 2022 edition, defeated Anders Antonsen 24-22, 11-21, 21-14 at the All England Badminton Championships.
Birmingham: India’s Lakshya Sen recorded a stunning three-match win over the world No. 1. 3 Anders Antonsen advances to the quarter-finals, but an error-prone PV Sindhu lost in the second round of the women’s singles of the All England Championships on Thursday. The world number 18, who had finished second at the 2022 edition, fought his way back from 2-8 down in the decider after losing the second match to win 24-22, 11-21, 21 -14 won against Antonsen, a three-time World Championships medalist, in a controversial second-round match.
Earlier, Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, looked in good touch as she fought hard against world No. 1, An Se Young of Korea, but failed to curb her mistakes and slipped to a 19-21 loss, 11-21. It was the Indian’s seventh consecutive defeat against the indomitable An Se Young, who had become the first Korean woman singles to win the World Championships last year.
Sen came into the match with a 1-3 record against Antonsen, who had defeated the Indian in all the last three encounters. But the Indian put on a good show and led 17-15 in the first game after some initially exciting battles. With two winners, Antonsen made it 17-17, but Sen was the first to gain two game points with a precise backhand move on the corner.
The Indian wasted five game points while Antonsen stayed alive. Finally, at 22-22, two powerful smashes gave Sen his fifth game point and he sealed it this time when the Dane shot wide. After the change of ends, Antonsen was on top of things and led 11-7 at half time. The Dane held the rallies firmly as Sen made too many mistakes and the second game slipped away quickly.
In the decider, Antonsen led 2-8 before taking an 11-6 lead at the break. But soon the momentum changed as the Indian won seven of the next nine points to equalize at 13-13. At 14-16, Antonsen was called for a foul for touching the net, confusing the Dane. “Fault? Why? Touched the net? My racket or body?” an animated Antonsen was heard saying to the chair umpire.
Sen soon unleashed a forehand winner to move to 16-14, which he extended to 18-14 when a defensive shot went wide of Antonsen. Another long rally ended with Lakshya two points away from a win. A smash gave him six match points and he converted when the Dane went wide.
PV Sindhu vs An Se Young
Sindhu, who is making a comeback after recovering from a left knee injury, tried to attack but her 22-year-old opponent looked in a different class as she varied the pace of the rallies and used her repertoire of blows well to move up to come. trumps. Things went downhill for Sindhu after the break in the second game as the mistakes continued to pile up.
Sindhu led 4-1, but An Se Young started to read the game better and slowed down the rallies. She kept sending the tosses and clears, waiting for mistakes from Sindhu, who invariably sent the shuttle wide and long.
The Korean soon led 11-8. Sindhu kept the attack going and produced a backhand push and a cross smash. However, the Korean remained solid in her defense and moved to 13-10 and then to 15-11 with another precise defeat. Sindhu tried to charge towards the net and target her rival’s body but Young’s instincts helped her survive twice as she sent the shuttle away.
From 13-17, Sindhu fought back to 16-17. But Young pulled away again with two points before taking four game points with a forehand drop. Sindhu put one on net and then produced a hard hit on her rival’s forehand to stay alive. The Korean then slipped during a rally as Sindhu made it 19-20.
However, just in time, An Se Young sent a backhand over Sindhu’s head to the back line to end the opening match. The second match started tightly before An Se Young took a five-point lead at the break. After that it all went downhill for Sindhu.