All England Open: Lakshya Sen Outlasts Ng Ka Long Angus To Storm Into Quarter-Finals

An inspired Lakshya Sen came up with a resilient performance to trump Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus in three games and advance to the men's singles quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Thursday (March 5).

World No. 12 Sen, a runner-up at the 2022 edition, overcame a setback in the second game and the sheer physicality of the encounter to prevail 21-19, 21-23, 21-10 against Ng Ka Long, a former top-10 player. He had defeated world number one Shi Yuqi in the opening round.

Sen will next take the court on Friday (March 6) for his last-eight match. He will meet China's sixth seed Li Shi Feng, who beat Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in their round of 16 face-off.

ALSO READ: Lakshya Sen Vs Ng Ka Long Angus Highlights

Lakshya entered the match after losing all three previous encounters against Angus and fell behind initially in the first game. He clawed his way back from 4-6 down to establish a 15-11 lead, keeping the pressure on his opponent with aggressive returns and sharp placement.

He stretched the advantage to 17-13 with a well-timed overhead attack, but Ng Ka Long refused to fade away and narrowed the gap late in the game. At 15-17, Lakshya left one at the backline but it was judged out.

The Indian had no video challenges left and had to let it go. The Indian then produced a sharp smash to reach 19-17, but Ng Ka Long clawed back to 19-19 with a cross-court winner.

Another jump smash gave Lakshya a game point and he sealed it when Ng Ka Long hit wide.

Lakshya slammed down a cross court smash to start the second game to continue the momentum. He kept his shot quality consistent and mixed his power with precision to take a 11-4 lead at the interval. Lakshya dished out another phenomenal straight smash to make it 14-7.

But the Hong Kong player produced a spirited fightback to move to 17-19. Another superb cross-court smash brought up three match points for Lakshya. The Indian Lakshya missed one, and then Ng Ka Long found the line by a millimetre before saving another to make it 20-20.

Sen grabbed another match point, only to squander it and then Angus earned a game point with a smash and forced the match into the decider after the Indian found the net.

The 24-year-old had to start afresh after Ng Ka Long snatched the second game away and then showed great mental strength as he surged to 6-2 with some exciting shots. His defence was solid as Ng Ka Long couldn't get past anything.

The rallies started growing shorter as Lakshya drew errors from the Hong Kong shuttler, who trailed 6-14 at that stage. Lakshya soon earned 11 match points when Ka Long found the net. He wasted one before another shot from the Hong Kong shuttler sailed out.

(With PTI inputs)