Tata Open 2017: Lakshya Sen comes back from a game down to beat Yee Han Chong in first round

Mumbai: Sixth seed Lakshya Sen rallied superbly from a game down to beat Malaysian shuttler Yee Han Chong in three games to enter the men’s singles second round at the $20,000 10th Tata Open India International Challenge on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_3964781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Lakshya Sen. Image courtesy: Twitter @virenrasquinha[/caption] Sen, the Asian junior bronze medalist and a trainee at the Prakash Padukone Academy, had to struggle before getting the better of Chong 21-23 21-10 21-18 in an hour and three minutes for his second successive win over the Malaysian in five days. The two young shuttlers had met in the final of the $8,000 India International Series in Hyderabad on 26 November and Sen won 21-15 17-21 21-17. Also through to round two was the top seed and former champion Sourabh Verma, but third seed Giap Chin Goh pulled out as the Malaysian contracted malaria. India’s Mithun Manjunath was the player to benefit from the withdrawal. In women’s singles, sixth seed Sai Uttejitha Rao and No 7 Reshma Karthik were knocked out by unseeded overseas rivals, M Thinaah of Malaysia and Cheung Ying Mei of Hong Kong respectively. Fifth seed from Singapore, Chua Hui Zhen Grace, was also shown the exit door by India’s Ira Sharma. Top seed Rituparna Das and No 2 K Sri Krishna Priya, however, moved into the second round.