Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand of India won their match in the women’s doubles category and advanced to the quarterfinals, while Lakshya Sen lost his match in the men’s singles competition of the All England Championships on Thursday.
Treesa and Gayatri, who won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, continued to grow as they defeated Sayaka Hirota and Yuki Fukushima, the former world No. 1 pair, 21-14, 24-22, in a thrilling match.
The Chinese team of Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan will be the next opponent for the world No. 17 Indian pair, who advanced to the quarterfinals in the last tournament.
Sen, a finalist from the previous year, lost 13-21, 15-21 in 52 minutes after struggling to establish his rhythm against Anders Antonsen. The Danes were getting some sweet retribution after losing to the Indian in 2022 in a row.
After recovering from an injury, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy teamed up with Chirag Shetty, but despite their valiant efforts, they were defeated by China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, ranked No. 10 in the world, 21-10, 17-21, and 19-21.
Treesa and Gayatri are in terrific shape after defeating Tan Pearly and Thinnah Muralitharan, ranked No. 7 in the globe, in the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship in February. The seventh-seeded Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kitiiharakul and Rawinda Prajongai were defeated in the first round by the Indian team.
Sen and Antonsen participated in some excellent exchanges in the men’s singles match, with the latter taking an early 8-4 lead and then securing a three-point edge at the break.
Sen, on the other hand, quickly picked up the pace and leveled the match at 11-11 after winning a rally that lasted 52 shots. Nevertheless, the Indian couldn’t maintain the momentum as Antonsen surged ahead to 19-13 after launching a winner on his opponent’s forehand to win yet another thrilling battle.
The two previous top-10 players battled it out for the bragging rights, but Sen and Antonsen made a few mistakes that prevented them.
Sen improved his play after switching sides and eventually built a 9-4 lead before expanding it to 11-5 at the halfway point of the match. Then, at 10-11, Antonsen staged a comeback to get within one point of the Indian.
Sen then lost his bearings as Antonsen began setting the conditions to turn the match around at 14-13 after the Indian slammed a shot into the net. Sen made a couple mistakes as the Dane earned five match points and won on the first opportunity.
Sen will lose a lot of ranking points as a result of his second-round elimination and will drop farther down the BWF rankings. The former world No. 6 dropped to the 19th spot last Tuesday after losing in the first round of the German Open.
