Tokyo [Japan], July 28 (ANI): India’s star shuttler Lakshya Sen prolonged his wonderful run on Thursday, defeating native hope Koki Watanabe in straight video games to enter the semifinals of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton competitors in Tokyo.
The 2022 Commonwealth Champion Lakshya registered a straight-set 21-15 21-19 victory over Watanabe to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.
Sen, who received the Canada Open Super 500 earlier this month, jumped out to a 5-3 lead early on earlier than closing to 11-7 on the break. The Indian had little bother manoeuvring the Japanese and rapidly sealed the opening sport with two cross-court returns on each side of the court docket.
Watanabe tried to infuse some power into the rallies after switching sides, however Sen regarded in command and moved to 3-2 with a surprising cross court docket drop. A 42-shot rally completed with Sen’s backhand falling into the web, giving Watanabe a 5-3 lead.
Sen, who trailed 7-14, staged a comeback, pulling his opponent to the web and making good use of drop pictures. With a cross-court smash, he rapidly turned the tables at 18-17. Sen secured one match level with two returns on his opponent’s backhand earlier than producing one other crisp return on the backhand line to clinch the match in opposition to his Japanese opponent.
Meanwhile, the Indian in-form males’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty didn’t convey their ‘A’ sport into the match, falling 15-21 25-23 16-21 to Olympic winners Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei.
Indian eighth seed HS Prannoy might be in motion later within the day in opposition to World and Olympic badminton champion Viktor Axelsen. (ANI)