Lakshya Sen got a perfect start at the Denmark Open beating Christo Popov.
The rivalry between French Christo Popov and Lakshya Sen from India added another chapter to the story on the opening day of the BWF World Tour comeback tournament, Denmark Open. For the fourth time the two youngsters met at a senior tournament.
Like many other players, Popov and Sen have not entered court since early spring, but from the beginning of the opening game it was not easy to see that the two young talents had not played a regular match in the past seven months.
Sen vs. Popov 3-1
The quality of the rallies was good, and the pace was fine, but the young French was struggling against the 19 year-old Indian.
Sen won the first game 21-9 and despite of a closer second game, Christo Popov fell short against the World number 27. In 36 minutes, Sen won the in straight games 21-9 21-15.
- I did a lot of mistakes, and today he played better than me. Mentally I think I was not prepared for that, and I think I was a little bit stressed. I will watch the match and talk to my coach to see what went wrong, Christo Popov said.
Lakshya Sen now has won three out of four match ups against Christo Popov. The Indian will be facing either Danish Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus or Maxime Moreels from Belgium in the second round.
Find the order of play for the opening day of Denmark Open here