Birmingham: India’s Lakshya Sen overcame the disappointment of missing out on four match points in the second game to dominate the decider against Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus to reach the quarterfinals of the All England Open here on Thursday.
The 24-year-old Indian, who has upset top seed and defending champion Shi Yu Qi in the opening round, prevailed over NG 21-19, 21-23, 21-10 in an hour and 21 minutes. This was also Sen’s first win over NG in their four meetings, though the last time they faced each other was back in the 2023 Malaysia Masters.
Sen, the 2022 All England finalist, began aggressively against his Hong Kong opponent and kept his nose ahead throughout the opening game. NG, however, drew level at 19-19 after winning three straight points, but Sen took the next two to pocket the game.
It looked like Sen would breeze through the second game when he opened up a 11-4 lead, but NG slowly but surely crawled back into the match. The experienced campaigner from Hong Kong saved three straight match points from 17-20 and then saved another at 20-21 but took the match in the decider.
“It was a very solid game in both the games. Credit to him (NG ) he made a solid comeback in the second (game) and I just didn’t play freely towards the end of the second game and just gave too many easy shots for him to kill. I was prepared again in the third to just go all out and happy with the way I played in the third game,” Sen said.
But Sen seemed determined to not let go of another opportunity, as he took control of the game early with powerful cross-court smashes, and though NG saved one match point at 20-9, the gap was too big for him to recover.
“I think tactically I was playing the right game both the games, and it’s just the last few points I didn’t stick to the plan, just gave too many easy errors, but again, it was important to just switch off, forget the second game, forget the first and play the third game with the same plan which was working,” he added.
Sen, the only Indian left in singles, will now face the winner of the match between sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China and Nhat Nguyen of Ireland.
(IANS)
