All England Championships: Lakshya, Malvika clear first hurdle | Badminton News

Lakshya Sen shrugged off a slow start to overcome the stiff challenge of Li Yang Su of Chinese Taipei 13-21, 21-17, 21-15 in the men’s singles first round of the All England Championships in Birmingham on Tuesday. World No. 28 Malvika Bansod upset world No.12 Yeo Jia Min of Singapore 21-13, 10-21, 21-17. She will face Akane Yamaguchi of Japan next.
However, HS Prannoy and the mixed doubles pair of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath crashed out. While Prannoy lost to Toma Junior Popov of France 19-21, 16-21, Sathish-Aadya suffered a 6-21, 15-21 loss to Chinese seventh seeds Xin Wa Guo and Fang Hui Chen.
Li began with a 7-1 lead in the first game and though Lakshya reduced the gap to 8-10, Li powered ahead with his fast-paced game.
The match seemed to be slipping away from Lakshya as Li went into the break with a four-point lead in the second game. Trailing 7-11, Lakshya changed gears. Hitting smashes with ease, he switched to attack mode and clinched six straight points to lead 13-11. Though Li stayed close till 17-17, Lakshya came up with a four-point burst to take the second game.
There was little to separate the two till 15-15 in the decider. Lakshya came up with four power-packed smashes from the front court to collect the next six points and close out Li.
In the second round on Thursday, Lakshya plays Jonatan Christie. The Indonesian downed Jun Hao Leong of Malaysia 21-11, 21-19 in the first round.
Earlier, Prannoy, who slipped out of the top-20 of the world rankings this year, struggled to find his rhythm against Popov. The Indian looked good in patches but was not quick enough to respond when Popov tested him in the corners.
Prannoy failed to capitalise on a 15-12 lead in the first game as Popov attacked him on the backhand corner. At 19-19, the Frenchman engaged the Indian at the net before surprising him with a well executed backcourt drive. Popov won the first game thanks to a poor service return from Prannoy.
Though Prannoy erased the four-point deficit at 9-13 in the second game, Popov scored three consecutive points to widen the margin. Thereafter he was in total control and finished the match with a backhand body smash.