All England Open: Lakshya Sen to face France's Thomas Rouxel in second round

Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen knocked out Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in the ongoing All England Open on Wednesday (local time). Lakshya defeated Kantaphon in the first round in two straight sets (21-18, 21-12). The Indian shutter had to fight hard in the first set which saw a topsy-turvy game between the two players.

However, Lakshya overcame world number 18 in the second set quite easily to clinch the game in 49 minutes and sail into the second round. The Indian shuttler will now meet French badminton player Thomas Rouxel in the second round of the All England Open on Thursday.

India shuttlers HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma, and Sai Praneeth also started their All England Open campaign on a high, winning their respective first-round games on Wednesday. However, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal exited the event after retiring hurt in the first round match (21-8, 10-4) against Danish badminton player Mia Blichfeldt.

For Prannoy it was an easy victory as he defeated Malaysian badminton player Liew Daren in two straight sets 21-10, 21-10 while Sameer had to toil hard for his win as Ygor Coelho from Brazil gave him a tough fight. Prannoy will now face star Japanese badminton player Kento Momota in the second round while Sameer will meet Danish badminton player Anders Antonsen on Thursday.

Earlier, ace India shuttler PV Sindhu cruised to the second round of the All England Open with a win over Malaysia's Soniia Cheah. Sindhu overcame the first-round challenge as she won 21-11, 21-17 in 39 minutes. Also, the Indian men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankirerddy progressed to the second round of the showpiece event.