Lakshya Sen Vs Shi Yu Qi Highlights, BWF World Championships: Indian Goes Down Fighting To Top Seed In Round Of 64

Good evening and welcome to everyone joining us this Monday for the start of the Indian challenge in the BWF World Championships. Lakshya Sen gets his campaign underway against the Chinese top seed, and we will bring to you the build-up and live updates from the match.

Lakshya Sen's match is seventh on Court 2. The fifth match, a women's singles encounter between Chen Yu Fei and Anna Tatranova, is currently into its second game. With that in match, Sen's clash should begin roughly around 6:15pm IST, depending on how long the sixth match takes.

The Lakshya Sen vs Shi Yu Qi, BWF World Championships 2025 match will be live streamed on the JioHotstar app and website in India. It will be telecast on the Star Sports Network TV channels in the country.

The last time Lakshya Sen was in the French capital was for the Paris Olympics, where he heartbreakingly missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish. He must have painful memories, but is looking to turn a new leaf in a new tournament.

The preceding match on Court 2 has just concluded, which means Lakshya Sen's face-off with Shi Yu Qi is coming right up. Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon goes down to Vietnam's Nguyen Thuy Linh 17-21, 18-21 and the stage is now set for the man from Almora to take the fight to the top seed.

Lakshya Sen and Shi Yu Qi are on court and have completed the customary pre-match knocking. Match starting in a few seconds.

Sen wins the brief opening point, earning serve in the process. But he loses it just as soon with an unforced error. The third point is a relatively longer one, with the Indian winning it with a confident smash. He leads 2-1 in the first game.

It's a really good start from Sen, who is taking the fight to the world number one in the opening game. It's his trademark defence that's holding the Indian in good stead, and he keeps abreast for the first 12 points before the Chinese opens up a 10-6 lead.

Sen closes the gap down to 10-9 before Yu Qi employs a smart smash directed at the Indian's body to go into the mid-game interval with a two-point lead.

The see-saw battle continues as Shi Yu Qi grabs a few quick points post interval, before Sen closes the gap again. The Chinese still favourite to win the first game, though Sen cannot be discounted.

It's pretty high-quality badminton and the pulsating rallies sap both players. The two-three point gulf eventually becomes a bridge too far for Lakshya Sen, who goes down fighting 17-21 in the first game.

Encouraging signs for the Indian, nevertheless. Let's see what he can do in the next game.

It's a strong start for Sen in the second game as he opens up a three-point lead to go 4-1 up. Shi Yu Qi retaliates and Sen now has a slender one-point advantage at 5-4.

Shi Yu Qi claws his way back superbly in the second game, defending stoutly to induce errors from Sen. He leads 11-7 in the mid-game interval and is 10 points away from knocking the Indian out in the round of 64.

The Chinese is now elevating his gameplay, attacking at every possible opportunity to rattle Sen. Sen is not going down without an almighty effort, however. He defends spectacularly at 10-14 down in an eye-catching 42-point rally, but ends up on its losing side. Yu Qi holds all the aces now.

Sen digs deep into his energy reserves to eke out a few more points and close the gap down to two points, before the Chinese restores his advantage. Sen then fights back again and has now come to 16-17 down in the second game. Can he force a decider?

Sen comes really close, levelling the second game at 19-19 courtesy a contentious call from the chair umpire, where the shuttle clearly appeared to have hit the court on Sen's end before he retrieved it. But the Indian eventually runs out of steam and the world number one heaves a sigh of relief as he wins the match 21-17, 21-19.

The 24-year-old from Almora bows out, but not before impressing viewers with some gritty strokeplay against the Chinese top seed.