Birmingham: Shuttlers Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy produced superlative performances to progress to the second round of the All England Championships with hard-fought straight-game wins in men’s singles here Tuesday. In a high intensity match, Lakshya Sen moved with speed and mounted a pinpoint attack on the lines to outwit fifth seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-19 in 48 minutes.
Lakshya, the 21-year-old from Almora had reached the final in the last edition. However, it was his first win over the World No. 5 after losing twice in three meetings.
Earlier, World No. 9 Prannoy survived some anxious moments before prevailing 21-19, 22-20 against Tzu Wei Wang in his 49-minute opening round clash to take his overall tally to 5-3 over the Taiwanese.
Sen, who slipped to World No. 19, will square off against either Anders Antonsen or Rasmus Gemke in the second round, while Prannoy will meet third-seeded Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.
The match between Chou and Sen expectedly turned out to be high pace contest. Chou took a 3-1 lead but Sen clawed back to lead 7-6 after playing some short rallies. The Indian led 11-8 at the mid-game interval.
The fast-paced rallies continued as Sen kept a firm grip to move to 15-9 but Chou won eight of the next 10 points to level at 17-17, only to give it all away with two errors.
A good judgement at the baseline took Sen to 19-17. A lucky net chord helped Chou make it 18-19 but he made another error to gift two game points to Sen, who converted it at the first opportunity.
After being locked 5-5 in the second game, Sen smashed out twice before producing a forehand flick to keep it 7-8 after a long rally. Sen looked to step up the attack, while Chou tried to vary the pace and prolong the rallies. However, Sen managed to eke out a one-point advantage at the break.
Looking for perfection, Chou erred as Sen moved to 15-12. Sen next wriggled out of a tricky situation with an immaculate shot and followed it with a powerful smash to lead 16-13. The Indian inched closer to win with another on-the-line return and then produced a flurry of smashes to move to 19-17.
Chou made it 18-19 before gifting two match point chances to Sen with a service error. The Taiwanese saved one with a smash before Sen unleashed a booming return to seal the contest.
Earlier, Prannoy looked in good touch as he reeled off five points on the trot to zoom to a comfortable 11-4 lead. However, the Indian was guilty of missing the lines twice and also found the net, allowing Wang to cut down the deficit to three points at 11-14.
Prannoy managed to pull away to 18-12 with four straight points before Wang broke the run of points with an aggressive return after a fast-paced rally.
Wang then punished Prannoy for his weak returns and moved to 16-19 with a deceptive net return. A backhand going wide and then another one going long from Prannoy brought Wang to 19-19.
Prannoy then unleashed a cross court smash to move to game point and then sent down another straight smash to close the game.
The second game was a tightly fought battle, from the word go, as Wang opened up a 7-2 lead. Prannoy levelled the scores, only to miss the lines at his opponent’s forehand corner twice. Prannoy eventually brought out a booming smash to eke out a one point lead at the break. The two engaged in a slugfest next, moving neck and neck till 16-16.
Two venomous returns gave Prannoy a 19-17 lead but he once again squandered it as Wang made it 19-19. The Taiwanese went long next to hand over a match point to the Indian, who wasted it. However, a determined Prannoy ensured there was no last-minute hiccups as he rejoiced once Wang went to net.
