India Open: Priyanshu Rajawat stuns higher-ranked Lakshya Sen in Round 1, to face HS Prannoy next

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, January 16

Priyanshu Rajawat was ecstatic at the end of his first round encounter against his friend and sometimes roommate on the tour, Lakshya Sen. Rajawat, 21, stunned the 2022 India Open winner in a spirited display here today.

The young upstart edged the crowd favourite 16-21 21-16 21-13. Rajawat, who was forced to miss a lot of tournaments last year due to back issues, was keen to make a statement and started the proceedings aggressively in the first game. He went toe to toe with Sen, sparring in rallies and hitting powerful jump shots to upset Sen, who was looking for a positive start himself.

Today, I wanted to play my game and not take him lightly. I was in the lead but was mindful that he could still mount a comeback as it happened last time. Priyanshu Rajawat

He started aggressively and I was always playing catch-up. I had a plan but I failed to execute it. Maybe I have to be patient in rallies and wait for an opening to win points. Lakshya Sen

Sen led 11-10 at the break in an error-filled opening game. However, he started to get a grip of the match after executing crosscourt drop shots as well as smashes and although Rajawat kept coming back with his own array of shots, it was Sen who won the opening game.

Rajawat started aggressively in the second and raced to a 4-1 lead within no time. Sen, who is known for his defensive nous, kept himself in the game with two quick points. He, however, opened the gates for his opponent with a service fault, and coupled with some stunning down-the-line smashes, Rajawat raced to a big lead of 11-6. Sen tried to rally back and closed the gap to thee points after forcing errors from Rajawat’s racquet. Rajawat, though, always had his nose ahead as he mixed his drop shots and smashes to send the match into the decider.

In the third game, the errors from Sen’s racquet shot up as Rajawat led 9-3. With the crowd backing Sen, the 22-year-old kept bagging points but could not reduce the deficit. Rajawat showed he had game management as he slowed the game down. Sen’s luck also deserted him as the chair umpire docked him a point for a net fault when he was deemed to have smashed the shuttle before it had crossed over to his side. From then on, for every point Sen earned, he lost another because of an error to concede the match.

‘Playing catch-up’

Sen conceded he was always playing catch-up, especially in the third game. “I could have started better in the third game but credit to him, he had a solid game and there were a lot of errors from my end,” the world No. 19 said.

“He started aggressively and I was always playing catch-up. I had a plan but I failed to execute it. Maybe I have to be patient in rallies and wait for an opening to win points,” he added.

For Rajawat, it was sweet revenge as he had lost a close three-game encounter to Sen at the Japan Open last year after leading 18-14 in the decider.

“Today, I wanted to play my game and not take him lightly. I was in the lead but was mindful that he could still mount a comeback as it happened last time. So I wanted to end the game early,” Rajawat said.

“When he started to win points, I took a break as I was losing points at a clutch. So I slowed it down a bit. I am up against HS Prannoy next. He beat me in Australia. Like today, I will try to do well against him,” he added.

Earlier, Prannoy eased to a 21-6 21-19 win over Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen.

In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand lost to the Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida 21-18 14-21 13-21. The men’s doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Arjun MR went down 9-21 13-21 against Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin.