India ace Lakshya Sen made a fine start to the new season, advancing to the men’s singles second round with a hard-fought win over Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore at the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old from Almora, who won the Australian Open and also registered a final finish at Hong Kong last season, took 70 minutes to get past world No. 21 Teh 21-16 15-21 21-14 in a thrilling opener.

A 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, Lakshya, currently ranked World No. 13, will next face either sixth seed Christo Popov of France or Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod, returning after a six-month layoff due to a left knee injury, however, suffered a 11-21 11-21 loss to seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, a former world champion, in the opening round.

Later in the day, Ayush Shetty, who won the US Open Super 300, will take on Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the Paris Olympics bronze-medallist. Indian men’s doubles pair of experienced M R Arjun and 22-year-old Hariharan Amsakarunan will face Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita.

Also read: Lakshya Sen cruises to quarters in Japan Masters