Malaysia Open: Lakshya Sen enters second round, Malvika out

KUALA LAMPUR: 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 here 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 No. 21 Teh 21-16 15-21 21-14 in a thrilling opener.

A 2021 world championships bronze medallist, Lakshya, currently ranked World No. 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. Agencies

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