Birmingham, March 6 () India’s star badminton player Lakshya Sen on Thursday made it to the quarter-finals of the All India Open 2026. He defeated Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in the pre-quarterfinal match. Earlier, Lakshya had pulled off a big upset in the first round by defeating defending champion Shi Yu.
The 24-year-old Indian player defeated Long Angus 21-19, 21-23, 21-10 in a match that lasted one hour and 21 minutes. This is Sen’s first win against Angus. Earlier, he had to face defeat in 3 matches against the Hong Kong player, which also included the defeat in the 2023 Malaysia Masters. Sen, a 2022 All England finalist, started aggressively against her Hong Kong opponent and maintained her lead throughout the opening game. However, Long won three consecutive points to level the score at 19-19, but Sen won the next two points to seal the game.
At one time it seemed that Sen would easily win the second game also. He was leading 11–4 in the second game, but Long Angus slowly clawed his way back into the match. The experienced Hong Kong player saved three consecutive match points at 17-20 and then saved one more point at 20-21 to seal the match in the decider.
“It was a very solid game in both games. Credit to Long Angus, he came back solid in the second (game). I didn’t play well at the end of the second game and gave him too many easy shots. I was ready to go all out again in the third game and was very happy with the way I played in the third game,” Sen said. Long Angus tried hard to get back into the match and saved a match point at 20-9, but the gap was too big for him to get back to level.
He further said, “I think tactically my game was playing well in both the games, and it was just in the last few points that I did not stick to the plan. Made a lot of mistakes, but it is important for you to forget the first, second game and focus on the third game and it was important to play with the same plan which was working.” Sen, the lone Indian left in the singles, will now face sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China and Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. Will happen with the winner of the match.
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SM/RSG
