Lakshya Sen advanced to the second round of the All England Open 2025 badminton tournament after beating Chinese Taipei’s Su Li-yang at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Tuesday.
Lakshya, who slipped five places to 15th in the latest men’s singles badminton rankings, beat Su Li-yang 13-21, 21-17, 21-15 in an hour and 15 minutes.
After dropping the first game and trailing 11-7 in the second, Lakshya Sen, an All England finalist from two years ago, rallied to win the next six points.
The phase of play proved to be the turning point of the match as the Indian badminton player went on to win the second game to take the match into a decider.
In the decisive third game, both players kept each other at arm’s length with the score reading 15-15. However, Lakshya Sen held his nerve and finished with a flourish by picking up six consecutive points to beat world No. 37 Su Li-yang.
HS Prannoy, on the other hand, exited the All England Open after a 21-19, 21-16 loss against France’s Toma Junior Popov in a 53-minute-long contest.
The Indian shuttler was quick off the blocks and took a 4-0 lead in the early exchanges before world No. 17 Toma Junior Popov picked up his first point of the match.
At the mid-game break, HS Prannoy, 29th in the men’s singles rankings, held a narrow 11-9 advantage. However, the French shuttler erased the deficit and consolidated his first game point in the match to win the opener.
Popov seemed more comfortable in the second game and closed out the match without any hiccups.
Meanwhile, Malvika Bansod progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF Super 1000 tournament after a hard-fought victory over Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min in an hour and three minutes.
World No. 28 Malvika Bansod upset Yeo Jia Min, 12th in the women’s singles rankings, by a 21-13, 10-21, 21-17 scoreline to move into the next round.
In the mixed doubles section, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath failed to progress beyond the first round after a 21-6, 21-15 defeat against the People’s Republic of China’s Guo Xin Wa and Chen Fang Hui.
PV Sindhu and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will start their All England Open 2025 campaigns from Wednesday.
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