Early Exit For Lakshya Sen In BWF World Championships, Loses To Top Seed Shi Yu Qi In First Round

Lakshya Sen has exited the BWF World Championships after his straight-game loss to reigning world no. 1 Shi Yu Qi of China in Paris on Monday. The scoreboard read 17-21, 19-21 in favour of the Chinese.

This happened to be Lakshya's first-ever exit from the first round in the same city in which he encountered heartbreak at the Olympics. The scoreline would suggest that the Indian shuttler didn't take his opponent for granted and made him run out of his own money.

Lakshya Sen Matched Up With Shi Yu Qi In First Game

Lakshya's form hasn't been great in the tour this year, and the 2021 bronze medalist had hoped for a miracle. He showed flashes of brilliance in the Macau Open and failed to capitalise on them as he lost momentum in crucial phases. The first game saw end-to-end stuff as Shi marched ahead 10-6. But Sen came back strongly and drew level at 11-11.

But the world number one showed his composure and went ahead to take a three-point lead. But a fault from the Chinese allowed Sen to make it 14-16. But Shi never looked back from there and took the first game 21-17.

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Lakshya Sen Almost Forced A Decider In Second Game

In the second game, Sen continued to match Shi's efforts and took the game to 5-5. But Shi was clever to bring in his A game and opened up a five-point lead at 14-9. At one point, it looked like the game might go on to a decider as Sen reduced the lead to one point at 18-19. But successive errors didn't pay off and Shi went on to win the game deservingly. Sen would be disappointed not to close the game when it mattered, but his performance would surely boost his morale.

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