Orleans Masters 2023 badminton: Anders Antonsen stunned by world junior number one Alex Lanier
French teenager Lanier scored the biggest win of his career so far on home soil against the Danish star, as women's top seed Carolina Marin eased through her opener.
Badminton
Anders Antonsen was the big-name casualty in round one of the BWF World Tour Super 300 Orleans Masters on Wednesday (5 April).
French youngster Alex Lanier delighted the home crowd with a 21-12, 5-21, 20-10 win over Denmark's former world number two to claim the biggest scalp of his young career..
The 18-year-old recovered from a mid-match slump to take victory in 61 minutes.
Having conserved his energy when the second game was clearly beyond him, the world junior number one raced into an 11-4 lead in the decider with fourth seed Antonsen unable to come back.
Last week's Spain Masters champion Nishimoto Kenta started his bid for back-to-back titles with a 21-18, 21-11 victory over Chinese Taipei's Chia Hao Lee.
Recent Swiss Open winner Watanabe Koki won his all-Japanese encounter with second seed Tsuneyama Kanta.
Tsuneyama, who lost to Nishimoto in Sunday's Madrid final, took the first game 21-13 but struggled after that as 34th-ranked Watanabe won the second 21-7.
And Tsuneyama's radar remained awry in the decider - the world number 15 missing lines and finding the net several times - as Watanabe reeled off 10 consecutive points to lead 14-4 before completing a 13-21, 21-7, 21-8 triumph.
There were mixed fortunes for France's Popov brothers as Christo defeated Sweden's Felix Burestedt 17-21, 21-12, 21-12.
But sixth seed Toma Junior Popov fell at the first hurdle as Indonesia's Christian Adinata ran out a 16-21, 21-19, 21-16 winner.
After her disappointment on home soil last weekend, Spain's Rio 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin made a winning start in France, beating Denmark's Line Christophersen 21-9, 21-18 in just 34 minutes.
London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal continued her poor run of form as she crashed out 21-16, 21-14 to Turkish player Neslihan Yigit.
How to watch Orleans Masters 2023 badminton
The event is live to watch in some regions, including host nation France, on the BWF YouTube page.
You can watch the weekend action from Orleans - Saturday's semi-finals and finals day on Sunday - live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com with geo-restrictions also applying.