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India's Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy cruised into the men's singles second round of the Yonex All England Open 2023 badminton tournament with hard-fought wins in Birmingham on Tuesday.
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Lakshya Sen ousted fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-18 21-19 in a close first-round match in 48 minutes. This was the first win for the 21-year-old Sen from Almora against the world number five. Earlier, he had to face defeat against Tien Chen in two matches. Sen will play the winner of the match between Anders Antonsen and Rasmus Gemke in the next round of the Yonex All England Open 2023.
At the same time, world number nine Indian HS Prannoy got the better of Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei 21-19 22-20 in 49 minutes in straight games. With the win, Prannoy's win-loss record against Wang became 5-3. The 30-year-old Prannoy from Kerala will next face third seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the round of 16 of the Yonex All England Open 2023.
Pranay looked in good shape. He started well and took five straight points to lead 11-4 at the break in the first game. The Indian, however, then hit a few shots outside and on the net to make it 11-14 for Wang. The Indian shuttler made it 18-12 with four consecutive points. But Wang took advantage of the Indian's weakness to make it 16-19. Prannoy then hit two consecutive outside shots to level the scores at 19-19. He grabbed a game point with a cross-court smash and then followed it up with another smash to win the first game.
The second game saw a close contest right from the start. Wang was leading by 7-2. Prannoy, however, came back strongly to take a narrow 11-10 lead at the break. Both the players were tied at 16-16 after this. Prannoy made it 19-17 with two good returns. But then he gave Wang a chance to make a comeback and level the scores at 19-19. After that, Wang shot outside to give Prannoy a match point but he could not capitalize on it. Prannoy, however, eventually kept his composure and won the match with Wang hitting the net.
On the other hand, Lakshya Sen, who had made it to the All-England final last year, had a slow start. In the second game, Lakshya Sen carried the momentum and raced to a healthy lead. But the Chinese Taipei shuttler, caught up to make it 10-10. The 21-year-old Indian shuttler, however, hit back to wrap up the match in straight games.
Meanwhile, Indian shuttler PV Sindhu's first match of the Yonex All England Open 2023 will be against China's Zhang Yi Man on Wednesday. While World No. 22 Kidambi Srikanth will take on 25th seed Toma Popov of France in the first round of men's singles today. Saina Nehwal withdrew her name from the Yonex All England Open 2023 before the match. However, she has not given any reason for her decision.