Badminton WC: Lakshya overturns slow start to storm past Austria’s Collins Filimon in opener

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) India’s top men’s singles player Lakshya Sen recovered from an early setback to launch his BWF World Championships 2026 campaign with a 16-21, 21-8, 21-4 victory over Austria’s Collins Filimon in the men’s singles Round of 64 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.

The Indian, seeded 14th, who needed 45 minutes to complete the comeback, found another gear after dropping the opening game and thereafter barely allowed his opponent into the contest.

The opening game was the closest of the three, with neither player able to establish a meaningful cushion in the early exchanges. Lakshya Sen, a former World Championship bronze medallist, and Filimon traded points through the first half, with the Austrian taking a narrow 11-10 advantage at the interval.

Sen appeared to struggle for rhythm as the game progressed, with a series of missed shots preventing him from capitalising on the tight contest. Filimon moved ahead at the crucial stage and earned game point at 20-16 before converting his opportunity to take the opener 21-16 in 15 minutes.

The match, however, changed dramatically once the second game began.

Filimon initially stayed with Sen and levelled the score at 6-6, but the Indian quickly began to assert himself. A burst of four consecutive points gave Sen control, and from there the rallies increasingly went his way.

The Indian stepped up the pressure and steadily stretched his advantage. Filimon was unable to reproduce the consistency he had shown in the opener, while Sen found greater freedom in his shot-making. He moved to game point at 20-8 and closed out the second game 21-8 after 16 minutes, forcing a decider.

There was little resemblance between the deciding game and the opening one.

Sen came out aggressively and immediately put distance between himself and the Austrian. By the interval, he had raced to an 11-1 lead, leaving Filimon with a steep climb back into the contest.

The Austrian struggled to find answers as Sen continued to dictate the pace. The Indian soon moved within a point of victory at 20-4 before completing the turnaround on the next rally.

The 21-4 scoreline sealed the decider in just 14 minutes and completed Sen’s 45-minute victory.

After being tested for much of the opening game, Sen produced a dominant response across the final two, conceding just 12 points in total. The comeback takes him into the next round of the men’s singles draw at the World Championships in New Delhi.

In other matches, Unnati defeated Thet Htar Thuzar of Myanmar in straight games, winning 22-20, 21-16 in 40 minutes in their first-round match played at Court 1 on Tuesday.

Rohan Kapor and Rutvika Shivani Gadde went down to Jonathan Bing Tsan Lai and Crystal Lai of Canada in mixed doubles, while Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh also lost in three games to Turkey’s Emre Sonmez and Yasemen Bektas, losing 21-16, 29-30, 22-24 in a hard-fought thriller.

India’s top women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their first-round match in straight games, winning 21-15, 21-12

–IANS

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