Lakshya Sen, Malvika Bansod advance to second round of Korea Open Badminton Championships 2022

SUNCHEON: Indian shuttlers — Lakshya Sen and Malvika Bansod advanced to the second round of the Korea Open Badminton Championships 2022 after registering hard-fought wins at Palma Stadium here on Tuesday. The 20-year-old Sen, who clinched silver at All-England Open last month, came from behind to defeat South Korea's Choi Ji Hoon 14-21, 21-16, 21-18 in his first-round match of the BWF Super 500 event. This was Lakshya's second win against the Korean in as many matches. The two youngsters had previously clashed at the world junior mixed team championships back in 2018.

The first game started off as a close affair with Lakshya , world No 9, and Choi tied at 14-all. However, the Indian lost the last seven points on the trot to concede the opener. Lakshya was more clinical of the two in the second game, though, and managed to stretch the match into a decider. Tied at 18-all in the third game, Sen scored the next three points to seal the match in one hour and two minutes. Sixth seed Indian will take on Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito in the second round.

In the women's singles, Malvika Bansod beat China's Han Yue 20-22, 22-20, 21-10 to progress into the next round. The Indian shuttler failed to save four game points in the first game but made up in the next two games to win in 56 minutes.

Earlier in the day, former Asian championships bronze medallist HS Prannoy lost to Malaysia's Cheam June Wei 17-21, 7-21 and made an early exit. IANS

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