India’s top men’s singles shuttler, Lakshya Sen suffered yet another first-round exit in a BWF event in 2025. Facing Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen at the French Open, Lakshya lost 7-21, 16-21 in just 43 minutes. He is ranked 16th in the world and Nguyen 29th.
For Sen, this has been a season of inconsistency. It was his 11th capitulation on the first hurdle this year. The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist looked off-colour right from the start at Glaz Arena in Cesson-Sevigne. He failed to read Nguyen’s returns properly and made multiple judgment errors. This helped the player from Ireland build a strong lead of 11-5 at the mid-game interval. After that, Sen won only one point and conceded in clusters due to his poor deception and weak frontcourt game.
The second game started in similar fashion. Sen made multiple unforced errors and Nguyen capitalised on them, leading 11-5 at the break. After that, Sen looked slightly more settled as the players exchanged a few points. At 17-11, Sen staged a short comeback by winning three consecutive points, showing quick reflexes and sharp placements, but that wasn’t enough to force Nguyen into a decider.
Sen has lost in the semi-finals of the French Open in 2024. He wouldn’t have thought of crashing out in the first round this time, as he had beaten Nguyen in last week’s Denmark Open. He was in good rhythm and had also knocked out Danish world No. 2 Anders Antonsen before losing in the semi-finals.
This was the fifth match between Sen and Nguyen. The head-to-head record now reads 3-2 in the Indian’s favour. Both of Nguyen’s win against Sen have come this year. Before this one, he had defeated Sen at the Thailand Open.
In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde defeated Ukraine Oleksii Titov and Yevheniia Kantemyr 21-12, 21-19 to reach the pre-quarterfinals.
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