The steely resolve of Priyanshu Rajawat made the difference as he bounced back to knock out the 2022 champion Lakshya Sen from the India Open badminton tournament here on Tuesday.
Rajawat and Lakshya, friends and training partners, were engaged in a tense 75-minute battle before the former avenged his loss at last year’s Japan Open with a 16-21, 21-16, 21-13 win. Rajawat set up a second-round clash with senior training partner H.S. Prannoy.
Lakshya, yet to hit peak form after a nose surgery last year, could not challenge his younger rival in the second and third games. After losing the first, Rajawat realised the futility in attempting to match Lakshya’s speed. He smartly slowed down the pace and lengthened the rallies. The ploy of keeping the shuttle in play worked in Rajawat’s favour as Lakshya became impatient and erred repeatedly.
Rajawat opened leads of 9-4 and 17-10 in the second game to pull ahead. In the decider, he raced ahead 9-1 before Lakshya bounced back to make it 9-11.
Rajawat, however, won the next three points and went on to take a seven-point lead (18-11). Thereafter, Lakshya saved a match-point but soon netted to hand Rajawat a big win of his career.
“I was very keen to win this one after losing our previous encounter in the Japan Open where I led 18-14 in the decider but lost 22-24,” revealed Rajawat.
World No. 8 Prannoy raced away with the first game (21-6) against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen before being stretched in the second. After bridging the gap from 8-14 to 18-19, Prannoy clinched the last four points to win in 42 minutes.
Other results (first round, involving Indians):
Men’s doubles: Le Yang & Wang Chin-Lin bt M.R. Arjun & Dhruv Kapila 21-9, 21-13.
Women’s doubles: Yeung Nga Ting & Yeung Pui Lam (Tpe) bt Rutaparna Panda & Swetaparna Panda 21-6, 21-7; Nami Matsuyama & Chiharu Shida (Jpn) bt Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand 18-21, 21-14, 21-13.
