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All England: Lakshya Sen stuns world no 3 Anders Antonsen to enter quarters
Lakshya Sen will next face Chinese Lu Guang Zu in the quarters on Friday.
Having breezed past compatriot Sourabh Verma in straight games late on Wednesday, Lakshya Sen did not rest. On the contrary, he immediately started formulating his plan of action for the second round with Korean coach Yong-sung Yoo. The 20-year-old was to face Danish world No 3 Anders Antonsen—one of the most tactical players on the circuit—next, who had ousted reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the opener.
Even though they had never faced each other, the two knew each other pretty well with the Indian regularly training in Denmark. The two had also stood together on the rostrum at the 2021 World Championships in Huelva—both with bronze medals hanging from their necks.
To overcome this next hurdle, Sen picked up his phone to have a small chat with long-time mentor U Vimal Kumar, chief coach of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru where the 20-year-old trains, to discuss strategies he would employ against the third seed. The first thing the former chief national coach asked Sen to do was watch Antonsen’s first round match against Loh to get a fresh idea of the Dane’s attacking and fast paced game.
Sen, who hails from Almora, used the advices of his coaches and schemed against Antonsen— a two-time World Championship medallist—to come out on top with a 21-16, 21-18 win in 55 minutes to progress to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Thursday.
“There was a bit of drift, so keeping that in mind, I had two game plans. In the first game, I was just trying to keep the shuttle in play. In the second, from the faster side, I took my chances and going for my smashes really helped. The tournaments I played last year gave me a lot of confidence. The India Open win was a big boost. As a kid you always want to win at the All England, so I look forward to doing well here," Sen said after the match.
“Lakshya was brilliant today, he was tactically better,” an elated Vimal said. “We discussed about the match this morning. (I told him that) against Anders, the most important aspect will be his movement, second length.”
Sen, who achieved a career high of world No 11 on Tuesday, started dominating from the start. Sen looked in control against the reigning European champion, using the drift to his advantage and push the bird regularly to the back of the court and attack the net. He flummoxed Antonsen multiple times with his serve by changing the lift.
“Anders has better variations from around the head area. From there he has a good, hard smash and deceptive cross half-smashes,” said Vimal. “Lakshya was ready for his quick flick service too. He didn’t rush in and played cool to beat him.”
Sen countered Antonsen’s cross half-smashes with deep forehands, ensuring that he was ready to retrieve the shuttle in the next shot. The inability to kill the bird frustrated Antonsen, who hit quite a few shots wide or long.
Sen recycled tactics he used to beat reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen at the German Open semi-final last week. He used his power and smash judiciously and when Antonsen tried to push the pace, Sen slowed it down.
Sen has been on a brilliant run of late. After claiming bronze at the World Championships in December, he won 13 of the 15 matches he played this year. Sen won his maiden India Open in January, beating world champion Loh in the final. He will next face Chinese Lu Guang Zu in the quarters on Friday.
Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth out
Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, who were on course to face each other in the quarter-finals, suffered second round exits from women’s singles at the Super 1000 event. While two-time Olympic medallist and sixth seed Sindhu lost to Japanese Sayaka Takahashi 19-21, 21-16, 17-21 in an hour and six minutes, former finalist Saina put up a brilliant fight before losing to Japanese second seed and reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 in 50 minutes. Srikanth too lost his second round to Indonesian fifth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-9, 18-21, 19-21 in an hour and two minutes.
In men’s doubles, fifth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Germans Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel 21-7, 21-7 in 27 minutes to enter the last-8.
Daughter of chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, who won the All England Open in 2001, Gayatri Gopichand progressed to the women’s doubles quarters with her partner Treesa Jolly after their opponents, Indonesian sixth seeds Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, retired while leading 21-18, 14-19 in 48 minutes.
