German Open 2023 | Indian campaign ends as Lakshya Sen stunned by Christo Popov
Lakshya Sen, the winner of the CWG 2022, was eliminated in the first round of the men's singles competition of the German Open 2023 after falling to France's Christo Popov. In the round of 32, Sen, the world no. 12, was defeated by Christo Popov, ranked No. 41 in the world, 21-19, 21-16.
In seven encounters, Lakshya Sen had suffered two losses to Christo Popov. Also, this was Lakshya Sen's second loss in the first round of a BWF World Tour match this year. At the Indonesia Masters, when he advanced to the quarterfinals, he turned up his best performance of the year.
Sixth-seeded Lakshya Sen took a while to get going and gave up an early advantage in the first game. The world championships bronze medalist turned the tables and went from down 4-7 to leading 19-17, but she lost the first game after losing four straight points.
At the change of ends, Christo Popov jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Although though Lakshya Sen closed the margin to three points before the break, he was unable to regain the initiative and went on to lose the match in 46 minutes.
In the first round of the women's singles earlier in the day, Tasnim Mir, a former junior world number one, lost in 25 minutes against Pornpawee Chochuwong, ranked 11th in the world, 21-8, 21-10.
India's challenge in the BWF Super 300 tournament came to an early end in the first round when players Malvika Bansod in the women's singles and Mithun Manjunath in the men's singles both lost their respective matches later.
As Mithun Manjunath battled against the 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore but ultimately lost the match 8-21, 21-19, and 11-21, Bansod fell to the reigning Asian champion Zhi Yi Wang of China 21-13, 21-14.