Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty played a practice match with each other on Thursday, a day before they left for the All England Championships. The tournament has been disrupted by the conflict in the Middle East between US-Israel and Iran, impacting athletes across several sports given Dubai and Doha are major transit arteries. But having reached Birmingham over the weekend, the two Indian men’s singles players will need to do battle on court – for which that Thursday face-off could offer pointers.
Sen prevailed in their unofficial contest. But there is a bigger win he might want to record when he plays World No. 1 and World Champion Shi Yuqi in Round 1 at Birmingham. Easily the most complete player on the circuit, the Chinese can summon any stroke and push the pace while also employing deceptions at any given point.
He is injury-prone though and a little rusty after a setback at the start of the year. Sen is a master of analysing weaknesses and pouncing on them early in big events, like he took out Jonatan Christie at the Paris Olympics.
Plus, he’s beaten Shi once, back in 2022 in the Asian Games team gold medal match (though India lost 2-3), while running a fever.
Sen digs the All England. He made the final in 2022, defeated Chou Tien Chen in the opener in 2023 a few months after a nasal surgery, and pushed the Viktor Axelsen (in 2020), Anders Antonsen and Jojo Christie to the brink, though wins eluded him. Last year Li Shifeng dealt him a blow, but Sen fancies his chances at the Utilita Arena.
“There’s a chance, I’d say 50-50, though Shi Yuqi is a complete player,” coach Vimal Kumar says.
Sen returned from the Asian Championships with a disappointing loss to Loh Kean Yew, but had picked a throat infection, and a glute muscle strain. “If Lakshya can retrieve, make it hard for Shi to pick early points, and then counter-attack, he can surprise. But he cannot give him freebies early on. He has to play like it’s the All England final,” the coach adds.
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Ayush Shetty, 20, playing his first All England, came second in that Thursday tussle. What he managed to take away though was a simulation of an opponent he will face in his opener at Birmingham. Indonesian Alwi Farhan is 20 like him, and the two have shared podiums in juniors, and the Indian is 2-3 in career head-to-head. Alwi cost Ayush a Junior Worlds final, and has used more or less the same tactic each of the three times he’s won against the Indian 6-foot-4.
Watch out
Ranked World No.14, Alwi tends to rush and crowd Ayush by pushing the pace early and swamping his mind. It’s what Sen employs too against his junior, not allowing him to settle down. “Ayush just needs to be alert, get a good warm-up so he moves quickly and contain Alwi,” Vimal says.
This requires him to carefully strike a good length and use tosses to the back of the court, keeping the Indonesian engaged there.
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Ayush, still smarting from the loss from match point up at the Asian team event against Korea, has shown he can comfortably tackle the rally runners. But opponents use \hustle to drive the World No.22 out. Both the Indians start as underdogs, but Vimal reckons they can pull off upsets.
Chances are Kidambi Srikanth could join the two in the All England main draw, and he’s been in good nick. The many disruptions could open up a spot for the first reserve, and he’s always a contender.
Satwik-Chirag play Malaysians Kang Khai Xing and Aaron Tai first up, and they have unfinished business with Chen Bo Yang-Liu Yi in the second. There could be a few more Malaysians up ahead, but this is the steadiest and most settled they’ve been since the Olympics, and hungry for a title.
Treesa-Gayatri love the All England as much as Sen does, and should the draw stay as it is, they have Sayaka Hirota-Ayako Sakuramoto to contend with. The fight is always alive in them, but the duo might need to get bolder and scalp a few Chinese (Li-Luo) if they want to be in the semifinals again.
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With PV Sindhu missing out on the All England, Unnati Hooda and Malvika Bansod will want to register their progress. Unnati will battle jet-lag after being forced into rerouting her flight, before she plays eighth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong. Malvika might want to see an opportunity in what is a fairly stiff draw, playing third seed and former Olympic champ Chen Yufei.
The war has hit India’s biggest shuttler’s participation this All England. Those who reached Birmingham without incident might want to make their chance count.
