Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy reached the second round of the All-England Championships with back-to-back, close wins in the men’s singles meeting in Birmingham on Tuesday.
Last year’s runner-up Sen knocked out fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-19 in 48 minutes, while world number 9 Prannoy survived some anxious moments before prevailing 21- 19, 22-20 against Tzu Wei Wang in his 49th minute.
In a high-intensity match, Sen, who has slipped to world number 19, used his speed and attack to earn his first win over the world number 5 after losing twice before.
Chou took a 3-1 lead, but Sen rallied to make it 7-6 and led 11-8 at the mid-game interval. The fast-paced exchanges continued as Sen held firm control to move to 15-9, but Chou won eight of the next 10 points to tie it at 17-17, only to give it all away with two errors.
Good baseline judgment brought Sen to 19-17, a lucky net chord helped Chou make it 18-19, but he made another mistake and Sen converted his first gajme point.
The second game closed out 5-5 before the Indian produced a forehand to keep the score 7-8 after a lengthy exchange. Sen sought to intensify the attack, while Chou tried to vary the pace and prolong the exchanges. However, it was Sen who had a slight one-point lead at half-time.
Sen continued to increase his lead, weathering difficult situations to lead 16-13, but his opponent nearly came back at 18-19.
At that point, Chou made a service error to give up match points and Sen unleashed a booming return to seal the contest in the second.
Previously, Prannoy seemed to have a good touch as he started with a comfortable 11-4 lead. However, Wang cut the deficit to three points at 11-14 before Prannoy pulled away to 18-12 with four straight points.
Wang snapped the streak and then punished Prannoy for his weak returns and moved to 16-19 on a misleading net return. A pair of erroneous backhands by Prannoy tied them at 19-19. But the Indian then unleashed a cross spike to move to game point and then sent another straight spike to close out the game.
The second game was a tight battle from the start as Wang opened up a 7-2 lead. Prannoy leveled the scores, only to miss the lines into his opponent’s right corner twice.
The two then got into a brawl, moving neck to neck until 16-16. Two magnificent returns gave Prannoy a 19-17 lead, but again 19-19. Wang went long and handed a match point to the Indian, who failed to convert it, but sealed it with his second as Wang went to the net.
Sen will face Anders Antonsen or Rasmus Gemke in the second round, while Prannoy will face third seed Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.
Wednesday will see the other Indians in action, with PV Sindhu and the doubles teams starting their campaign.
(With PTI Inputs)
