India’s Lakshya Sen recorded a stunning three-game win over world no. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals but an error-prone PV Sindhu lost in the women’s singles second round of the All England Championships on Thursday.
The World No. 18 Sen, who had finished runner-up at the 2022 edition, fought his way back from a 2-8 deficit in the decider after losing the second game to prevail 24-22 11-21 21-14 over Antonsen, a three-time medallist at the World championships, in a controversial second round match.
Earlier Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, seemed to be in good touch as she fought hard against the world No. 1 An Se Young of Korea but failed to curb her mistakes to slip to a 19-21, 11-21 loss.
It was the Indian’s seventh successive loss to the indomitable An Se Young, who had become the first Korean woman singles player 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 meetings.
But the Indian produced a good show and was leading 17-15 in the first game after some close battles initially. With two winners, Antonsen made it 17-17 but Sen was the first to gain two game points with a precise backhand flick at the corner.
The Indian squandered five-game points as Antonsen stayed alive.
Eventually, at 22-22, two power-packed smashes gave Sen his fifth game point and he sealed it this time when the Dane sprayed wide.
After the change of ends, Antonsen was on top of things, leading 11-7 at the break. The Dane kept a firm hold on the rallies as Sen committed too many errors and the second game slipped away quickly.
In the decider, Antonsen was up 2-8 before grabbing an 11-6 lead at the interval.
But soon the momentum shifted as the Indian won seven of the next nine points to draw parity at 13-13.
At 14-16, Antonsen was called for a fault for touching the net, which rattled the Dane. “Fault? Why? Touched the net? My racket or body?”, an animated Antonsen could be heard saying to the chair umpire.
Sen soon unleashed a forehand winner to move to 16-14, which he swelled to 18-14 when a defensive shot went wide from Antonsen.
Another long rally ended up long as Lakshya stood two points away from a win. A smash gave him six match points and he converted when the Dane went wide
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