Badminton Asia Championships: Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy crash out in Round 1

India's ace shuttlers Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy crashed out in the first round of the Badminton Asia Championships on Wednesday, April 9. Lakshya lost in straight sets to Lee Chia Hao while Prannoy was beaten by Zu Guang Lu of China in three. Lakshya let an early lead in set 1 slip, which allowed Lee to storm into the contest and win the match in just 35 minutes.

The 23-year-old Indian ace started the first set in fine fashion and went into a 8-3 lead on Wednesday. However, Lee made the most of the mistakes from Lakshya and took an 11-9 lead at the halfway mark. Despite trailing at the break, Lakshya made a spirited comeback to make it 16-16, setting up a grand finish to the set. But Lee was able to hold his nerve and won the final three points to take the set 21-18.

The second set was one-way traffic as Lee assumed full control of the contest and dominated Lakshya to win 21-10 and progress to the



next round.

Prannoy, on the other hand, put on a valiant effort and went down to Guang Lu in a match that lasted for one hour and eight minutes. The Indian ace, who has not been at his best since his bout with Chikengunya, battled for most of the first set before Guang Lu raced on to claim the lead in the contest.

The second set saw Prannoy take an early lead, but Guang Lu was able to tie things up at 9-9. The Indian ace fought and won the final six points of the set unopposed to make it 1-1 in the match. However, Lu was too strong for Prannoy in the final set as the Indian shuttler failed to put on a strong showing.

In other matches, Kiran George made it to the pre-quarterfinal round with a 21-16, 21-8 win over Dmitriy Panarin of Kazakhstan in 35 minutes. Aakarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya also lost their opening matches in the women's singles to crash out of the event.