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Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen crashed out of the All England Open 2023 men's singles event after losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark in straight games at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Thursday.
Current World No. 19 Lakshya Sen, who had lost to Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the All England Open final last year, lost 21-13, 21-15 to world No. 18 Antonsen in the round of 16 of the BWF Super 1000 event. The Indian badminton player began the match on a positive note but once the two shuttlers were tied at 11-11, two-time world championships medallist Anders Antonsen upped the ante to win 10 of the next 12 points and go 1-0 up. Lakshya Sen, a world championships bronze medallist, mounted a comeback to lead Anders Antonsen by six points at the second break. However, a series of consecutive points saw the Dane race ahead and take the match in 52 minutes. Earlier in the day, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly defeated former world No. 1 Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-14, 24-22. Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, world No. 17 in women's doubles, knocked out world No. 9 pair of Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota in 50 minutes in their round of 16 match. They will take on the world No. 23 women's doubles pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Li Wen Mei of China in the quarter-finals on Friday. In men's doubles, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to in-form Chinese shuttlers Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-10, 17-21, 19-21. Men's singles players HS Prannoy, ranked ninth, and former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth also lost in their round of 16 matches. HS Prannoy went down to world No. 3 Indonesian shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 22-20, 15-21, 21-17. Kidambi Srikanth, world No. 22, faced a 21-17, 21-15 defeat at the hands of world No. 6 Japanese shuttler Kodai Naraoka. (ANI)
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