All England Open: Lakshya Sen stuns Antonsen; PV Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag knocked out

Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stunned world number 3 Anders Antonsen in the pre-quarterfinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships on Thursday.

However, it was curtains for PV Sindhu, who lost against top seed An Se Young in women's singles Round of 16 clash, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost their men's doubles fixture against Indonesia's Bagas Maulana and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.

Lakshya made a phenomenal comeback in the final game and defeated Antonsen after losing to him thrice in previous meetings.

World number 18 Indian shuttler started brilliantly against Antonsen and was leading 11-10 at the mid-game break in the first game. He raced to a lead of 17-15 after some close battles. Antonsen made it 17-17 with two winners.

Lakshya went ahead to earn the game point but Antonsen came back to make it 22-22. Lakshya produced a powerful smash and then Antonsen sprayed wide as Lakshya won 24-22.

After the change of ends, Antonsen was on top of things, leading 11-7 at the break. The Dane kept a firm hold on the rallies as Sen committed too many errors and the second game slipped away quickly.

In the decider, Antonsen was up 2-8 before grabbing an 11-6 lead at the interval. Once the sides were changed, Lakshya Sen came back as man-possessed and won seven of the next points to equalize at 13-13.

Lakshya was leading 16-14 when Antonsen was faulted twice for touching the net which led to Dane reacting and losing his momentum.

Sen soon unleashed a forehand winner to move to 16-14, which he swelled to 18-14 when a defensive shot went wide from Antonsen. Antonsen went wide at 20-14 and Lakshya moved to the quarter-finals.

Sindhu's wait for a win against An Se Young continues

Star Indian shuttler Sindhu fought well but fell short against world no. 1 Young, who troubled the Indian player with her superb control and rock solid defence. Young mixed variable pace in rallies and brilliant strokes to get better of Sindhu for a record seventh time.

For Sindhu, things went downhill after the break in the second game as errors kept mounting up.

Sindhu started with a 4-1 lead but Young started settling into the game and slowed down the rallies. She kept sending the tosses and clears, waiting for errors from Sindhu, who invariably sent the shuttle wide and long.

After the mid-game break, Young led 15-11, but Sindhu kept fighting throughout the game. Despite trailing 13-17, Sindhu took three points to make it 16-17. Young moved ahead to make it 20-16 before Sindhu tried to fight back and make it 19-20 with a tight smash.

However, just in time, Sindhu judged a toss from Young wrong at the backline, helping the Korea seal the opening game.

In the second game, Sindhu couldn't put up a fight and meekly lost after going behind at the break.

"She is, of course, the top player now. But I should have been much more patient, I made unforced errors. There were easy mistakes," Sindhu said.

"In the first game, it was fine but then I was coming closer and then giving away those two three points. But I think I gave her a huge lead in the second game, and then I was making receiving mistakes," said Sindhu.

In the men's doubles clash, Satwik and Chirag suffered a 16-21, 15-21 defeat against Fikri and Maulana.

In the women's doubles fixture, Indian pair Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to Chinese pair Zhang Shu/Zheng Yu despite winning the first game. They lost 21-11, 11-21, 11-21.