Badminton Asia Championships: Lakshya Sen suffers first-round exit

Dubai [UAE], April 26 (ANI): BWF World Championships bronze medallist and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen crashed out of Badminton Asia Championships on Wednesday.
He lost his opening game to world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in straight games in the men's singles opening round on Wednesday.
Lakshya lost in two straight games 7-21, 21-23 to the Singaporean shuttler in 37 minutes.
In the first set, Indian shuttler seemed to have no specific plan against Loh and lost by a huge margin of 7-21 in the first game. After the disappointing opening, Lakshya made a comeback by gaining a lead of 11-9 in the second game.
He even got to the game point as he was leading by 20-19. However, he failed to capitalise and lost the match 21-23.
Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud lost their men's double game against the Japanese pair of Kobayashi Yugo and Takuro Hoki.
Krishna and Vishnu lost against former world champions in two straight games 15-21, 17-21.
In the women's doubles, Ashna Roy and Haritha Harinarayanan were defeated by the Thailand duo of Jongkolphon Kitithrakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-11, 21-2.
Due to Lakshya's relatively low ranking of 24 on the BWF list, he faced a challenging draw in his first game of the Badminton Asia Championships. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist is suffering a rough patch from the start of the 2023 season. He has played seven tournaments so far and has reached quarter-final in only one tournament. (ANI)