New Delhi [India], August 18 : Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen overcame a slow start to defeat Austria's Collins Valentine Filimon 16-21, 21-8, 21-4 in the men's singles Round of 64 at the BWF World Championships here on Tuesday.
Playing at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Sen took 45 minutes to complete the comeback victory and book his place in the next round of the tournament being held on home soil.
The opening game was closely contested as both players exchanged points in the early stages. Filimon held a slender 11-10 advantage at half-time of the first game before Sen struggled to find his rhythm and committed a series of unforced errors.
The Austrian capitalised on the Indian player's mistakes to establish a 20-16 game point advantage before closing out the opening game 21-16.
Sen responded emphatically in the second game. The 25-year-old stayed aggressive in the rallies and moved into a comfortable lead after the scores were level at 6-6. He then strung together four consecutive points and continued to dictate play.
Filimon found himself increasingly under pressure as Sen extended his advantage to 20-8. The Indian converted the game point at the first opportunity to take the match into a decider.
The final game proved to be one-way traffic. Sen raced to an 11-1 lead at the interval and never allowed Filimon back into contention. The Austrian struggled to match the Indian's pace and attacking play as Sen moved to 20-4 before sealing the decider 21-4.
Sen's victory was among the positives for India on a mixed second day at the World Championships.
Earlier, Unnati Hooda defeated Myanmar's Thet Htar Thuzar 22-20, 21-16 in the women's singles, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand advanced to the women's doubles Round of 16 with a 21-15, 21-12 win over USA's Lauren Lam and Allison Lee.
India also suffered defeats in doubles, with the pairs of Kavipriya Selvam-Simran Singhi, Ruthvika Gadde-Rohan Kapoor and Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh exiting the tournament.