India ace Lakshya Sen commenced the new season well, advancing to the men’s singles second round with a hard-fought win against Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore at the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton
tournament on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old from Almora, who clinched the Australian Open and reached the finals at Hong Kong last season, took 70 minutes to overcome world No. 21 Teh with scores of 21-16, 15-21, 21-14 in a thrilling opener.
A bronze medallist at the 2021 world championships, Lakshya, ranked World No. 13, will next face either sixth seed Christo Popov of France or Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.
In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod, returning after a six-month layoff because of a left knee injury, suffered an 11-21, 11-21 loss to seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, a former world champion, in the opening round.
Later in the day, Ayush Shetty, who won the US Open Super 300, will compete against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist.
The Indian men’s doubles pair, comprising experienced M R Arjun and 22-year-old Hariharan Amsakarunan, will face Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita.
(With PTI Inputs)
