Malaysia Open: Lakshya Sen enters 2nd round, Malvika out

India ace Lakshya Sen made a fine start to the new season, advancing to the men’s singles second round with a hard-fought win over Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore at the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old from Almora, who won the Australian Open and also registered a final finish at Hong Kong last season, took 70 minutes to get past world number 21 Teh 21-16 15-21 21-14 in a thrilling opener. A 2021 world championships bronze medallist, Lakshya, currently ranked World number 13, will next face either sixth seed Christo Popov of France or Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod, returning after a six-month layoff due to a left knee injury, however, suffered a 11-21 11-21 loss to seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, a former world champion in the opening round. Later in the day, Ayush Shetty, who won the US Open Super 300, will take on Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the Paris Olympics bronze-medallist. Indian men’s doubles pair of experienced MR Arjun and 22-year-old Hariharan Amsakarunan will face Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita.