India’s Lakshya Sen defeated the world number one in three stunning sets. 3 Anders Antonsen advanced to the quarter-finals but fell short to error-prone PV Sindhu in the second round of the women’s singles at the All England Championships in Birmingham on Thursday. The world No. 18 Sen, who will be runner-up at the 2022 Olympics, fought back from 2-8 down in the final set to win 24-22 11-21 21-14 after losing the second game. Beat Antonsen. The three-time world championships medalist in a controversial second-round match.

Earlier, two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu seemed to be in good form in her match against world number one South Korean player An Se-young, but failed to curb her mistakes and lost 19-21, 11-21.

It was the Indian’s seventh consecutive loss to the indomitable An Se-young, who last year became the first South Korean women’s singles player to win a world championship.

Sen has a 1-3 record against Antonsen, who has defeated the Indian in each of his past three games.

But the Indians played well and led 17-15 after a close battle in the first game. With two winning points in a row, Antonsen chased the score to 17-17, but Sen’s precise backhand tap at the corner took the lead in gaining two game points.

With Antonsen still alive, the Indians wasted five game points.

In the end, Sen won the fifth game point with two powerful kills at 22-22, and this time he sealed the game point when the Dane’s shot missed.

After the change of court, Antonsen had the upper hand, leading 11-7 at halftime. As Sen made too many mistakes, the Dane firmly controlled the game and the second game passed quickly.

Antonsen led 2-8 in the deciding game and led 11-6 at halftime.

But the momentum soon shifted, as the Indians scored seven of the next nine points to tie the game at 13-13.

At 14-16, Antonsen was whistled for a mistake in touching the net, which made the Danes feel uneasy. “Mistake? Why? Touched the net? My racket or my body?” An excited Antonsen can be heard saying to the referee.

Sen quickly hit a forehand winner to chase the score to 16-14, and then Antonsen’s defensive shot missed and he extended the score to 18-14.

Another long rally came to an end, with Lakshay within two points of victory. A smash gave him six match points and he converted when the Dane went wide.

Sindhu vs An Shiying

Sindhu, who is on the comeback path after recovering from a left knee injury, tried to attack but her 22-year-old opponent looked completely different as she changed the tempo of the match and used her batting skills well. trump card.

For Sindhu, things started going downhill after the break in the second game, with mistakes piling up.

Sindhu led 4-1, but An Se Young started to read the game better and slowed down the attack. She kept delivering toss and clearances, waiting for Sindhu’s mistakes, and Sindhu always hit the ball far and wide.

Soon the Korean team led 11-8. Sindhu continued her attack with backhand pushes and cross smashes. However, the Koreans relied on their tenacious defense to chase the score to 13-10, and then relied on a precise spike to chase the score to 15-11.

Sindhu tried to rush to the net and target her opponent’s body, but Young’s instincts helped her send the ball away twice.

13-17, Sindhu fought back to 16-17. But Yang again scored two points and then used a forehand throw to take four game points.

Sindhu dove for the net and then performed a powerful smash on her opponent’s forehand to save her life. Then the Korean slipped while chasing points, and Sindhu chased the score to 19-20.

However, at this moment, An Shiying hit a backhand over Sindhu’s head and reached the backline to seal the victory in the first game.

The second game started in a stalemate, and An Shiying took a 5-point lead at halftime. After that, everything went downhill for Sindhu.

“Of course, she is a top player now. But I should have been more patient, I made some unforced errors. There were easy mistakes,” Sindhu said.

“The first game was good, but then I got closer and then lost two or three points. But I think in the second set I gave her a huge lead and then I made a mistake in catching the ball.

“It’s important to keep up with her because we need to work hard, be patient and try to improve our skills and techniques.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)