All England Badminton Championships 2022: Sindhu and Saina crash out; Lakshya Sen storms into quarters

Bengaluru, March 17: PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal made an early exit from the All England Badminton Championships 2022 while Lakshya Sen kept the Indian hopes alive at Birmingham on Thursday (March 17).

Sixth-seeded Sindhu, who had defeated China's Zhi Yi Wang 21-18, 21-13 in her first-round match lost to Japan's Sakaya Takahashi 19-21, 21-16, 17-21 in the second round enocunter which lasted 66 minutes.

Sindhu's jinx at the All England Championships continued as a medal at the world's oldest badminton tournament has so far eluded the world No. 7.

The Hyderabadi had reached semifinals twice, in 2018 and 2021, which so far has been the 26-year-old's best performances at the Super 1000 event.

Saina Nehwal, who defeated Beatriz Corrales of Spain 21-17, 21-19 in the 38-minute first-round encounter, lost to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 in a 50-minute women's singles clash.

It was a much improved performance from the former world No. 1 and 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist, who had lost in straight games to Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon at German Open last week.

All England Badminton Championships 2022: Sindhu and Saina through; Sai Praneeth, Prannoy crash out

If Sindhu and Saina had won their respective second round matches, they would have ended up facing each other in the quarterfinals, but it just was not their day.

However, Lakhsya Sen kept the Indian tri-clour flag flying in England with an upset 21-16, 21-18 win over world No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in straight games to progress to the men's singles quarterfinals.

The 20-year-old from Almora, who had claimed his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January and then reached the finals of German Open last week, stunned third seed Antonsen, a two-time medallist at World Championships in 2019 Basel and 2021 Huelva respectively.

It was their first meeting at the international stage.

The World Championships bronze medallist will face either Hong Kong's eighth seed Ng Ka Long Angus or China's Lu Guang Zu in the quarter-final.

Sen gave amply display of his tactical acumen as he dished out a defensive game and kept Antonsen away from the net to lead 11-9 at the first break. He kept things in his grip after the interval to move to a 13-9 advantage and maintained the lead to pocket the opening game.

Sen kept his clears close to the baseline and tried to use his smashes judiciously to jump to a 9-5 lead early on before grabbing a four-point advantage at the breather.

Antonsen fought his way back to 14-14, riding on six points on the trot. The duo moved 14-14 to 16-16 before Sen managed to eke out a two-point lead at 18-16.

He kept his nerves and unleased a cross court smash to grab three match points. Antonsen saved one after an exciting rally but the Indian shut the door next to make it to the last 8.

All England Open 2022: Schedule, Indians in Action, Previous Indian winners and Live Streaming Information

All England Badminton Championships 2022 is featuring a total of 128 singles competitors and 96 teams including world champions and Olympic champions.

So far only two Indians -- Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) -- have won the BWF-sanctioned All England Championships since the inception of the tournament in 1899.

Badminton fans in India can live stream the event and all the action on VOOT Select till Sunday (March 20).

(With inputs from Agencies)