Birmingham, March 17: India’s young badminton sensation Lakshya Sen continued his brilliant form and registered another big victory as he outplayed World no. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark by 21-16, 21-18 on Thursday to enter All England Open Championships’ quarterfinals here at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham. Men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chriag Shetty trounced Mark Lamsfus and Marvin Seidel of Germany 21-7, 21-7 to seal their spot in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, India’s campaign in the women’s singles ended after two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal suffered losses in their respective round-16 matches. Sindhu lost 19-21, 21-16, 17-21 to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi. Birthday girl Nehwal was knocked out after losing 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 to reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. The opening game started with close contest as Sen took slender 8-7 lead. The Dane made Sen work hard before the Indian took 11-9 at the time of the break. Post break, Sen dominated the game and kept Antonsen at bay and extended his lead to 14-9.
A few errors from Sen gifted free points to his opponent but he continued to maintain a lead. With his impressive and clever play, Sen won the first set. Second game started in a similar manner as none of the players managed to maintain a lead. Sen was well into his rhythm and was attacking with a barrage of smashes and headed into the breather with a 11-9 advantage. Then, Antonsen shifted momentum in his favour by taking six points in a row. But Sen was quick to fight and levelled the scores 14-14.
The Indian kept pushing the Dane back and soon wrapped up a win by taking the second set 21-18. This was the third occasion in a week, when Sen, ranked 11 in the world defeated a player – who is ranked inside top-5. He first trounced Anthony Ginting of Indonesia, who is ranks 5th in the world, in the German Open Open round-16 match. In the semifinal, Sen defeated Tokyo Olympic champion and World no. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to enter the final. However, in the finals he ended up as a runner-up. UNI
