Indian ace Lakshya Sen gave a winning start to his year, reaching the second round of the Malaysia Open Super1000 in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old defeated Jason Teh Jia Heng of Singapore in a tiring three-game encounter, 21-16, 15-21, 21-14, keeping his unbeaten record against Jason.
This was the fourth meeting between the two youngsters, with the Indian shuttler now leading the Head-to-Head record to 4-0.
Despite a delayed start on court 3, Lakshya looked calm from the beginning, taking an early lead in first game. However, Jason bounced back with some good shots, levelling the score at 10-10.
But post the midgame, the Indian shuttler increased the pace of his game and quickly gained back a big lead and finished off the game comfortably.
In second game, Lakshya made a couple of errors early, which shifted the momentum towards Jason, who didn’t miss this opportunity and forced the decider.
Then, in the final game, both players looked a bit nervous and made a couple of regular unforced errors, keeping each other’s scores in check.
Post mid-game, Lakshya started playing aggressively as Jason wasn’t looking comfortable from that side, giving multiple high returns, which helped Lakshya to win the match dominantly.
On the other hand, the youngster Malvika Bansod conceded a first-round exit to Ratchanok Intanton of Thailand in women’s singles, losing in straight games, 11-21, 11-21.
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