German Open Badminton 2023: India's campaign ends with Lakshya Sen's dismissal

India's campaign at the German Open Badminton 2023 tournament came to an end with the dismissal of Lakshya Sen. With the disappointing results on Wednesday, India had to come home early with a broken heart.

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Top Indian shuttler crashed out in the first round of the German Open Badminton 2023 tournament in Mulheim, Germany on Wednesday. World number-12 and sixth seed Sen lost to world number 41 Christo Popov in the round-32 match. Popov won the match 21-19, 21-16 which lasted for 46 minutes. This was also Lakshya Sen's second opening-round loss this year on his fourth BWF World Tour event. His best performance this year came at the Indonesia Masters where he reached the quarter-finals. 

Lakshya Sen, seeded sixth, was slow to get off the blocks and conceded an early lead in the first game of the German Open Badminton 2023. Despite turning the tables and going from a 4-7 position to leading 19-17, the world championships bronze medallist gave away four points on the trot to lose the opening game. Christo Popov raced to a 5-0 lead after the change of ends and though Lakshya Sen reduced the gap to three points till the break, he could not snatch the momentum back and lost the match in 46 minutes. 

In addition, three other Indians also lost their matches in the first round of the German Open Badminton 2023 tournament. With this, India's campaign in this BWF World Tour Super 300 event came to an end. Mithun Manjunath fought hard but went down against fourth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore. Yew won the match 21-8, 19-21, 21-11.

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In women's singles, Malvika Bansod went down 13-21, 14-21 to fifth seed and world number six Wang Wang Zhi Yi of China. At the same time, Tasnim Mir lost 8-21, 10-21 against Thailand's eighth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong. In mixed doubles, the pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa had lost on Tuesday. The duo was beaten 10-21, 12-21, 12-21 by the Scottish pair of Adam Hall and Julie Macpherson.