Birmingham, March 3 (IANS) India’s former World Championship bronze medallist, Lakshya Sen, caused the biggest upset of the opening day of the All England Open 2026 badminton championship when he packed off top seed and defending champion Shi Yuqi of China in the men’s singles opening round in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Sen, the 2022 finalist in one of the most prestigious badminton tournaments, overcame the reigning world champion 23-21, 19-21, 21-17 in an hour and 18 minutes.

Also advancing to the second round were India’s mixed doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who overcame the Malaysian combination of Hoo Peng Ron and Cheng Su Yin 21-17, 21-19.

But the day undoubtedly belonged to Sen. The 24-year-old, whose only win over the Chinese before this match came in the Asian Games team championships, kept the pressure on his much-experienced opponent with an aggressive game plan in the opening game and looked like he could run away with the game after taking a 17-10 lead. But Shi fought back to make it 18-17. Sen once again grabbed the initiative to earn three game points, but the Chinese not only saved those but also another one before the Indian pocketed the game.

Shi was the aggressor in the second game, and it was Sen who had to fight back from a 13-19 deficit. However, his effort was not enough to avoid a decider.

In the third and final game, Sen controlled the net brilliantly and also dominated the flat exchanges to open up a 16-11 advantage before earning four match points. Shi saved one of them, but his lift sailed long to hand the match to Sen.

Meanwhile, Malvika Bansod’s campaign ended with a 21-11, 21-6 loss against third seed Chen Yu Fei of China.

Bansode is expected to come up with the best performance by an Indian female player after PV Sindhu had to withdraw from the event, as she could not make it to Birmingham, as she was stranded in Dubai because the airspace was closed down due to the Middle East crisis, caused by the US-Israel launching strikes on Iran.

–IANS

bsk/