CHENNAI: The odds were heavily stacked against shuttler Lakshya Sen going into his first-round battle against World No 1 Shi Yu Qi of China.
With seven first-rounds exits so far this season going into the World Championships, that commenced on Monday, it goes without saying Lakshya had to be at his utmost best to have any chance of taking down Shi, who has been the gold standard so far this season.
Lakshya dug deep into his resources to make it an interesting watch but Shi was just too astute, too strong, winning the men's singles contest 21-17, 21-19 in Paris.
As expected, Shi was quick off the blocks, building a handy gap between himself and his rival. But Lakshya, well-known for his fighting qualities, clawed back to make it an even contest. However, every time Lakshya came close to matching Shi's score, the latter employed big shots to maintain the gap.
The Indian kept probing, with some sharp winners, to keep Shi on his toes. The duo was also involved in long rallies, testing each others' mental resilience. But Shi showed why he is regarded as one of the favourites to be one of the podium finishers as he retained his cool to close out the game.
There was more urgency in Lakshya's methods in the early parts of the second game as he looked to level the tie, landing some unanswered smashes during the said period.
But Shi adapted in no time and also displayed some lightning reflexes to regain the upper hand. Shi was astute while employing his shots and he kept the momentum going to take 11-7 lead going into the half-way stage of the second essay.
Shi didn't seem hurried at all and he occasionally employed his smashes to add to Lakshya's woes. The Indian had smashes of his own, successfully troubling the generally untroubled Shi. Despite clearly being the second-best during the phase, Lakshya kept digging deep, making some eye-catching returns. The Indian displayed his lighting speed and superhuman reflex to garner two consecutive points to make the contest interesting (16-17). But Shi immediately won the next two points to take control of the proceedings yet again. But the match was far from over as Lakshya, once again, captured three points to make it 19-19. The last point for Lakshya was a controversial one as the shuttle seemed to have touched the ground before an outstretched Lakshya made a return, resulting in him gaining the point.
Shi was perplexed but as was the case during the large parts of the match, Shi remained ice cool and clinched the game, entering the Round of 32 in the process.
