BWF World Championships 2023: Lakshya Sen sails into second round
What's the story
Eleventh seed Lakshya Sen reached the second round of the 2023 BWF World Championships after beating Mauritius's Georges Julien Paul on Monday.
The Indian shuttler claimed a straight-game win (21-12, 21-7) in just 25 minutes.
Sen, who bagged a gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, is off to a positive start at the BWF World Championships.
Here are the key stats.
Journey
Will Sen win his maiden BWF World Championships title?
Sen is vying to win his first BWF World Championships title.
The youngster, who won the bronze medal in 2021, has seen a lot of ups and downs this year.
However, he has bounced back recently. He won the Canadian Open and reached the semi-finals in US and Japan, respectively.
The Indian shuttler has a win-loss record of 22-15 in 2023.
CWG
Sen, India's gold medalist at CWG 2022
In 2022, Sen trounced Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong to claim a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games.
The Indian shuttler staged a comeback after trailing to overcome the world number 42 across three games (19-21, 21-9, 21-16).
Notably, Sen had claimed a medal in his debut run at the Games.
He would hope to replicate this in the ongoing World Championships.
Prannoy
HS Prannoy claims a similar win
Earlier in the day, Sen's compatriot HS Prannoy also won his opening round in a similar fashion.
The latter defeated Finland's Kalle Koljonen in straight games. The world number nine and India's highest-seeded singles shuttler won the match 24-22, 21-10 over the world number 57.
Before this match, Prannoy and Koljonen had faced each other twice, and the Indian tasted success each time.