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Commonwealth Games gold medalist Lakshya Sen crashed out in the first round of men's singles competition at the ongoing German Open being held in Mulheim on Wednesday.
He registered a loss to France's Christo Popov in two straight games, as per Olympics.com. Popov, world number 41, pulled off an upset by downing Lakshya, a world number 12 shuttler, by 21-19, 21-16 in their round of 32 match. This is the second time Lakshya has lost to Popov in their seven meetings. This is Lakshya's second first-round loss this year in his fourth BWF World Tour event. His best came during the Indonesia Masters, in which he reached the quarter-finals. Lakshya, the sixth-seed, was slow and conceded an early lead during the first game. He turned the tables quick, reaching to 19-17 lead from trailing by 4-7. But the World Championships bronze medalist gave away four points on the trot to lose the opening game. Popov raced to a 5-0 lead in the second game but Lakshya managed to reduce the gap to just three points till the break. But he could never maintain the momentum and lost the match within 46 minutes. Earlier, the former junior world number 1 Tasnim Mir lost to world No. 11 Pornpawee Chochuwong by 21-8, 21-10 within 25 minutes in the first round of women's singles competition. Malvika Bansod and men's singles player Mithun Manjunath will be in action later tonight. The German Open started on March 7 and will conclude on March 12. (ANI)
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