Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila register India’s first win at All England; Lakshya Sen takes first set against World No 1 Shi Yuqi as match poised at 23-21,19-21, 10-8
2 min readMumbaiMar 3, 2026 07:23 PM IST
India’s top mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila registered India’s first win at the All England Open with a 21-17, 21-19 win over Malaysians Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin to progress to the second round at the Utilita Arena on Tuesday.
India’s top pairing having slipped to World No 21, were up against one of the five promising Malaysian pairs who have mushroomed in the wake of the iconic Chen-Toh winning the world title. Hoo-Cheng are World No 23, but considered one of the emerging talented pairs. However Dhruv Kapila, who has been nursing niggles for some time now, burst out of the blocks and used the long flat drives to go on a 6-point rally in the opening set that scripted the tone for the rest of the match.
Tanisha, at times error prone, however was scythe when she went across at the net, but both Indians moved well to cross the first hurdle at an arena that played slow on the day.
The Indians kept things compact, but allowed errors to creep in as the Malaysians went from 12-20 to 17-20, and the Indians couldn’t finish off the first set. But having finally put it across, the Indians settled into rhythm – making peace with the chaos of their own up-and-down game.
In the second, things remained tight, and a 14-11 lead didn’t amount to much, as the Malaysians caught up, but Dhruv was finding winners down the middle and Tanisha followed with her pecking prods.
The Indians were in danger of being dragged into a decider, at 17-19, after a couple of mis-hits. But the drive game served the Indians well, before Dhruv fanned out to the back and even brought the shuttle back into play with a pirouette and forced a wide error from the Malaysians to get match point. A Tanisha push though sealed it for India.
Earlier, Malvika Bansod lost 21-11, 21-7 to Chen Yufei.
Lakshya Sen was battling World No 1 Shi Yuqi in a thriller, having taken the opening set 23-21, and narrowly missing out on sealing the second making the Chinese toil for 21-19 in the second.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
