Sen's campaign ends in World Championships

Paris, Aug 25 (PTI) Top Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen's campaign at the BWF World Championships ended in disappointment as he went down fighting in straight games to world No. 1 and top seed Shi Yu Qi of China in the men's singles opening round here on Monday.

The 24-year-old Sen, a bronze medallist at the 2021 edition, went down 17-21 19-21 in 54 minutes.

Despite pushing the Chinese to long rallies and producing bursts of his attacking brilliance, the Indian faltered in key moments, unable to breach Shi's rock-solid defence and explosive finishing.

Sen had come to Paris hoping to erase the memory of his heartbreaking fourth-place finish at the Olympics last August. Instead, he ran into the in-form Shi, who has won all nine finals that he contested since January 2024, and looked in complete command of his game.

With the win, Shi extended his head-to-head advantage over Sen to 4-1.

The match opened with both players engaging in gripping exchanges. A 47-shot rally early on ended with Sen misjudging a line call, handing Shi a 3-2 lead. The Chinese then unleashed two sharp smashes to move 10-6 ahead. Sen, however, capitalised on a few errors from his opponent and drew level at 11-11.

But the Indian could not ride on the momentum. Shi immediately broke away to 14-11 with a series of smashes, consistently targeting Sen's backhand corner.

An awkward backhand error from Sen and another wide smash from Shi allowed the Indian to claw back to 14-16. A 52-shot rally, which ended with Shi's clear sailing wide, once again brought Sen within striking distance.

Yet, just as Sen threatened to close the gap, Shi struck back with his trademark body smashes. The Chinese grabbed three game points at 20-17 and sealed the opener when Sen sent a return long.

Switching sides, Sen started brightly in the second game, matching Shi stroke for stroke to stay level at 5-5. But the Chinese again shifted gears, using clever slices and half-smashes to set up opportunities before hammering his whiplash winners.

A 414 km/h down-the-line smash epitomised his dominance as he surged to a 14-9 lead.

Sen dived desperately on both flanks to stay in the rallies, and his persistence paid off as he narrowed the deficit from 10-15 to 16-17 with a string of smashes and a brilliant crouching block at the net.

For a fleeting moment, it looked like the Indian might force a decider. But just when he had Shi under pressure, two unforced errors handed the Chinese a 19-16 cushion. Sen fought back to 18-19, snapping two points at the net and winning a controversial point. However, his fight ended tamely with successive errors — one into the net and the other wide — giving Shi a straight-game win. PTI ATK SSC SSC