Lakshya Sen reaches the quarter-final of the All England Open Badminton Championships: Day 3 Roundup
Day 3 of the All England Open turned out to be a hard pill to swallow for Indian badminton enthusiasts as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered an upsetting second-round elimination against Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana.
In addition to that, PV Sindhu and the pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also failed to get past the Round of 16. Consequently, only Lakshya Sen has managed to stay in the race for the prestigious All England Open silverware. Here’s a look at the Day 3 matches:
Men’s Singles
Lakshya Sen vs Anders Antonsen
Lakshya Sen faced Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in the second round of the All-England Open on Thursday. Antonsen, who won the 2024 Malaysia Open, is currently third in the BWF rankings. However, the Indian shuttler didn’t step back in the big match.
Playing against Antonsen, the 22-year-old managed to take an early lead, making the score 17-13 but the Dane came back in the game with five consecutive points making it 17-18. Nevertheless, Sen held his nerve in the final minutes to win the first game 24-22.
The second game was utterly dominated by the Danish shuttler as Sen started making errors. With Antonsen’s 11-21 triumph in the second game, the match was forced into decider. The third game started in a lamentable manner for the Indian shuttler as Antonsen was leading 1-7.
It seemed like Sen’s campaign in Birmingham would come to an end against the Dane shuttler but the 22-year-old made an astonishing comeback to seal the victory 24-22, 11-21, 21-14 in a three-game thriller, which lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Lakshya Sen is the one Indian shuttler remaining in the tournament after Satwik/Chirag’s elimination in the Round of 16
With the astounding win, Sen has become a frontrunner in the race to Paris. In the next round, he’ll face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the quarter-final of the All-England Open. Jia defeated Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew in the second round.
Women’s Singles
PV Sindhu vs An Se-young
PV Sindhu made her comeback on the BWF World Tour in February, after an injury break of three months. In the 2024 French Open, she reached the quarter-finals, where he lost against China’s Chen Yufei. In the All England Open, she got a headstart over Germany’s Yvonne Li in the first round.
However, she was drawn against South Korea’s An Se-young in the second round. In the first game, Sindhu gave a tough competition to the South Korean shutter as she was trying to capitalise on her opponent’s weaknesses. However, Se-young sealed the first game 21-19. Unlike the first, the second game was a one-sided affair as the World No. 1 advanced to the quarter-final after trouncing SIndhu 21-19, 21-11 at the All England Open.
With the latest victory, Se-young extended her unbeaten against Sindhu. The two shuttlers have faced each other on eight different occasions, where the two-time Olympic medalist has been winless. Nevertheless, the South Korean star will be facing China’s Han Yue in the last eight.
Men’s Doubles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the second round in Birmingham with a decent win over Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan on Wednesday. In the pre-quarterfinals, they were set to face Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana.
Playing against the Indonesian pair, Satwik and Chirag gifted a huge six-point lead to Fikri and Maulana in the first game. Eventually failing to cover the deficit, they lost the first game 21-16.
The World No. 1 pair was expected to make a comeback in the second game, however, it just turned out to be a repetition of the first as Fikri and Bagas took a 10-3 lead which was later reduced to only a three-point gap at 18-15 but the Indonesian pair won three consecutive points quickly to seal the match.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shocking defeat in the second round against Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri
Satwik and Chirag constantly struggled against the Indonesian pair as it seemed like their gameplan was falling apart. The Indian top seeds lost the match against Fikri and Maulana 21-16, 21-15 in 41 minutes. Last week, Satwik and Chirag won the 2024 French Open but the All-England Open turned out to be unlucky for the Indian shuttlers.
Women’s Doubles
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa vs Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the second round of the 2024 All England Open with a memorable win over Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam. However, the Indian pair has been eliminated by China’s Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu in the Round of 16.
With commendable reflexes and good coordination, Crasto and Ponnappa comfortably won the first game 11-21. However, the other two games were heavily dominated by the Chinese pair as they won the match 11-21, 21-11, 21-11. With that loss, all Indian female shuttlers were eliminated from the 2024 All-England Open.
What’s on Day 4?
With the disappointing eliminations of almost all the top Indian shuttlers, only Lakshya Sen has managed to stay in the competition. The 22-year-old will present his challenge against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the quarter-final on Friday.