Lakshya, Sourabh, Harsheel win on Day 1 at Senior Nationals

Teen sensation Lakshya Sen launched the bid to claim his maiden Senior Badminton National title with a straight-game win over Delhi's Rahul Patel and entered the men's singles third round here Tuesday.

The 17-year-old from Uttarakhand, who had clinched the Asian Junior title and a bronze medal at the World Junior Championship last year, defeated Delhi's Rahul 21-13 21-13 in a 28-minute match. Lakshya got a bye in the first round.

Lakshya, who had entered the finals in 2017 and semifinals in the last edition, set up a third-round clash against Jammu and Kashmir's Vipul Saini.

Former two-time champion Sourabh Verma also made a rousing start to his campaign with a dominating 21-10 21-8 win over Jayapragasham VS. He will play Assam's Iman Sonowal in the second round.

Maharashtra's Harsheel Dani, who had won the 2018 Ghana International, prevailed over Telangana's Siril Varma, a former World Junior Championships silver medallist 23-21 21-17 and will meet Haryana's 17th seed Balraj ...