India's Lakshya Sen got off the a rousing start at the Paris Olympics, beating Guatemala's Kevin Cordon 21-8, 22-20 in the men's singles badminton competition on Saturday.
He needed just 14 minutes to win the first game.
Cordon, who is ranked world No. 41 and finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, was no match for the 22-year-old Indian as he committed many unforced errors.
However, the reigning Pan American champion came back strongly in the second game, racing to a 4-1 lead, which he extended to 11-6 at the break.
After the change of ends though it was the world No. 19-ranked Indian who dazzled even though the Guatemalan stayed ahead and was just a point away from taking the match to the decider at 20-16.
With legends Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar backing him from the courtside, Sen reeled off four straight points to level the score at 20-20 and then won the next two points to seal the contest in 42 minutes.
Sen, a gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze winner at 2021 World Championships, will take on world No. 52 Julien Carraggi of Belgium on Monday in his second group match.
Also drawn in the same group is Indonesia's Jonatan Christie, who is ranked No. 3.
