All England Open Badminton: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen storm into second round

India's HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen registered dominating wins to advance into the second round of the men's singles competition at the All England Open 2023 badminton championships in Birmingham on Tuesday.

HS Prannoy defeated Chinese Taipei's world No. 24 Wang Tzu Wei 21-19, 22-20 in a 49-minute opening round clash. The world No. 9 Indian badminton player will meet third-seeded Indonesian, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, in the round of 16.

Later in the day, Lakshya Sen, who made the All England final last year, started slowly but overcame the world No. 5 Chou Tien Chen, also from Chinese Taipei, by a 21-18, 21-19 scoreline.

HS Prannoy looked in good touch and won the first game 21-19 despite some resistance from Tzu Wei Wang.

The second game was a closely-fought encounter as the lead changed hands several times. However, a determined HS Prannoy ensured there were no last-minute hiccups as he sealed the match with a 22-20 win.

Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, recovered from a slow start to claim the first game 21-18 against Chou Tien Chen.

In the second game, Lakshya Sen carried the momentum and raced to a healthy lead but the Chinese Taipei shuttler, seeded fifth in the tournament, caught up to make it 10-10. The 21-year-old Indian shuttler, however, hit back to wrap up the match in straight games.

This was Lakshya Sen’s first win over Chen in three meetings.

Lakshya Sen will either face the winner of the all-Danish tie between Anders Antonsen or Rasmus Gemke in the next round.

On Wednesday, world No.22 Kidambi Srikanth, who is yet to win a single match on the BWF World Tour 2023 so far, will take on France’s world No. 25 Toma Popov in round 1 of men’s singles.

Meanwhile, world No.9 PV Sindhu will open her women’s singles campaign against China’s world No.17 Zhang Yi Man. Former world No.1 Saina Nehwal, however, withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday.

In the men’s doubles, Indian pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face compatriots Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala while MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will battle Xiang Yu Ren and Qiang Tan in the opener.

In the women’s doubles main draw, the Indian challenge will be led by Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, who were the semi-finalists at the All England Open last year. The duo will face seventh-seeded Thai pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai, who hold a 4-0 head-to-head record against the young Indian team.

In another women’s doubles round of 32 encounter, Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will face the Korean pair of Ha Na Baek and So Hee Lee.