In the All England Badminton Championships, Lakshya Sen—who had placed second in the 2022 competition—overcame Anders Antonsen 24-22, 11-21, 21-14.
Lakshya Sen of India advanced to the quarterfinals of the All England Championships after defeating world number three Anders Antonsen in three games, but an error-prone PV Sindhu was eliminated in the women’s singles second round on Thursday. Sen, the World No. 18 who finished second in the 2022 edition, fought back from a 2-8 hole in the decider after dropping the second game to defeat Antonsen, a three-time World championship medalist, 24-22, 11-21, 21-14, in a contentious second round match.
Sindhu, a double Olympic medalist, appeared to be in fantastic form as she fought hard against Korea’s world No. 1 An Se Young, but she was unable to control her blunders, resulting in a 19-21, 11-21 loss. It was the Indian’s eighth consecutive loss against the tenacious An Se Young, who became the first Korean woman singles player to win the World Championships last year.
Sen entered the match with a 1-3 record against Antonsen, who had defeated the Indian in his previous three matches. However, the Indians performed admirably, leading 17-15 in the first game after some hard confrontations. Antonsen made it 17-17 with two winners, but Sen was the first to score two game points with a beautiful backhand flick in the corner.
The Indians squandered five game points, allowing Antonsen to survive. At 22-22, Sen earned his fifth game point with two power-packed smashes, and he sealed it when the Dane blasted wide. Antonsen was in command after the changeover, leading 11-7 at the half. The Dane maintained a tight grip on the rallies as Sen made too many mistakes, and the second game passed fast.
Antonsen led 2-8 in the deciding before going ahead 11-6 at halftime. However, the momentum quickly flipped, with the Indian winning seven of the next nine points to tie the game at 13-13. Antonsen was called for a fault at 14-16 for touching the net, which startled the Dane. “Fault? Why? Did you touch the net? An animated Antonsen could be heard asking the chair umpire, “My racket or body?”
Sen quickly blasted a forehand winner to lead 16-14, which he extended to 18-14 when Antonsen’s defensive ball sailed wide. Another long rally finished with Lakshya two points away from victory. A smash earned him six match points, which he converted when the Dane went wide.
