March 15, 2025: Indian Commonwealth Games champion and Olympian Lakshya Sen bowed out of the All-England Open 2025 after losing his men’s singles quarter-final match in Birmingham on Friday. Sen, ranked 15th in men’s singles badminton, lost 21-10, 21-16 against the reigning Asian Games champion and world No. 6, Shi Feng Li of China, as reported by Olympics.com.
Sen started the match well, matching the sixth seed shot for shot in the early exchanges. He led 4-3 before Shi Feng Li took control, scoring nine consecutive points to establish a commanding lead. Sen could only manage six more points in the rest of the first game, with Shi Feng Li comfortably closing it out.
In the second game, Sen mounted a brief comeback, leading 11-8 at the interval. However, Shi Feng Li switched gears after the break and quickly regained control, winning the match in 45 minutes. This defeat marked Lakshya Sen’s third loss in seven meetings against Shi Feng Li.
Sen had previously reached the semi-finals of the All England Open last year and made it to the final in 2022, showing his consistency in the prestigious tournament.
In the women’s doubles section, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand faced a similar fate, losing 21-14, 21-10 to the world No. 2 Chinese pair, Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the quarter-finals. The Chinese duo led early, but Jolly and Gopichand fought back to trail by just a point at the mid-game interval. However, Liu and Tan dominated the second game, sealing the match in 46 minutes.
Earlier in the tournament, two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out of the women’s singles event in the first round. Additionally, world No. 28 Malvika Bansod and men’s doubles duo Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also exited the competition. Shetty and Rankireddy were forced to retire from their round of 16 match after Chirag suffered a back muscle strain midway through the contest.