Hangzhou: Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen defeated China's Shi Yuqi in the first match of the badminton men's team final of the ongoing Asian Games 2022 here on Sunday. In the second match of the finals, India's shuttler duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are playing against Liang Werkeng and Wang Chan.
Lakshya Sen secured a win by 22-20,14-21,21-16 points against China's Shi Yuqi.
In the first set, Lakshya Sen was having momentum on his side. But when he was leading with 15-10 points, one unforced error by him brought Yuqi Shi back into the game. At one point, Yuqi Shi took a 17-16 lead but Lakshya didn't let her go far away and kept leveling the scores until Yuqi had one game point. But then Lakshya won three consecutive points drawing him into longer rallies to win the first round.
Chinese Yuqi Shi made a strong comeback in the second game, taking the match to the decider. He was looking comfortable from the later half of the first game and reading Lakshya Sen's playstyle.
Lakshya won some moments but Shi's strong net play and smashes into his body troubled him. Both players looked tired as the rallies got shorter and the errors increased, and they'll need to dig in to deliver their best in this all-important third game.
Lakshya Sen held four match points, and while he lost the first two, he made no mistake on the third instance, smashing it down the middle and giving India a 1-0 lead in this gold medal match.
Also read: Asian Games: Parveen assures India its fifth boxing medal, reaches semis of women's 57 kg
