All England Badminton LIVE: Lakshya Sen BEAT Chou Tien Chen – Lakshya Sen began his All England campaign with a victory. The World No.19 sailed past fifth seed Chou Tien Chen 21-18, 21-19 on Tuesday, 14th March 2023. Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy also booked a spot in the second round. The Indian secured a 21-19, 22-20 victory against unseeded Wang Tzu Wei in the first round. – Follow BWF All England Championships 2023 LIVE updates on InsideSport.IN
All England Badminton Highlights: Lakshya Sen defeats fifth seed Chou Tien Chen, HS Prannoy advances to second round at All England Championships 2023 – Watch All England Badminton 2023 Highlights
Men’s Singles
- HS Prannoy BEAT Wang Tzu Wei – 21-19, 22-20
- Lakshya Sen BEAT Chou Tien Chen – 21-18, 21-19
HS Prannoy vs Wang Tzu Wei
HS Prannoy made a positive start to his campaign at the All England Championships 2023. The World No.9 sailed past unseeded Wang Tzu Wei in straight games in the first round. This is Prannoy’s first win in thetour ince registering two successive first round defeats at the Indian Open and Indonesia Masters.
In the first game, Prannoy looked in good touch. He quickly raced to a 11-4 lead to enter the mid-game interval with a seven-point cushion. However he couldn’t continue his dominance as he let his opposition to reduce the deficit to 12-14. Prannoy managed to play some aggressive shots and pulled away to 18-12 lead.
Wang however pushed Prannoy yet again and took six successive points to level the scores 19-19. Under pressure, Prannoy hit two successive smashes to close out the first game in his favour.
In the second game, Prannoy started off with a 4-0 lead. However Wang clawed his way back and took 6-5 lead for the first time in the match. From then on neck-to-neck battle ensued between both the players and Prannoy hit a smash to eke out a one point lead at the break.
The slugfest continued after the break as both the players took the scores to 16-16. Prannoy managed to take upper hand with some aggressive shots to put him in front at 19-17. But Wang soon made it 19-19. Prannoy however kept his calm and took 21-20 lead. Wang then committed a costly error by hitting wide, helping Prannoy seal the match in 49 minutes.
Lakshya Sen vs Chou Tien Chen
In a high intensity match, Sen outwitted fifth seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-18 21-19 in 48 minutes. The 21-year-old from Almora, who had reached the final in the last edition, thus claimed his first win over the world number 5 after losing twice in three meetings.
Sen, who slipped to world number 19, will square off against either Anders Antonsen or Rasmus Gemke in the second round,. Chou took a 3-1 lead but Sen clawed back to lead 7-6 after playing some short rallies. The Indian led 11-8 at the mid-game interval.
The fast-paced rallies continued as Sen kept a firm grip to move to 15-9 but Chou won eight of the next 10 points to level at 17-17, only to give it all away with two errors. A good judgement at the baseline took Sen to 19-17. A lucky net chord helped Chou make it 18-19 but he made another error to gift two game points to Sen, who converted it at the first opportunity.
After being locked 5-5 in the second game, Sen smashed out twice before producing a forehand flick to keep it 7-8 after a long rally. Sen looked to step up the attack, while Chou tried to vary the pace and prolong the rallies. However, Sen managed to eke out a one-point advantage at the break.
Looking for perfection, Chou erred as Sen moved to 15-12. Sen next wriggled out of a tricky situation with an immaculate shot and followed it with a powerful smash to lead 16-13. The Indian inched closer to win with another on-the-line return and then produced a flurry of smash to move to 19-17. Chou made it 18-19 before gifting two match point chances to Sen with a service error. The Taiwanese saved one with a smash before Sen unleashed a booming return to seal the contest.
All England Badminton LIVE: Lakshya Sen defeats fifth seed Chou Tien Chen, HS Prannoy advances to second round at All England Championships 2023 – Follow All England Badminton 2023 LIVE
