India’s Lakshya Sen loses to Chinese Li Shi Feng in US Open semis

Lakshya Sen

Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen fought hard before going down in three games to reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of China in the men's singles semi-finals of the US Open badminton tournament here. A CWG gold medallist, Lakshya, seeded third here, lost 17-21, 24-22, 17-21 to second-seed Feng in a last-four match that lasted one hour and 16 minutes in the BWF Super 300 event on Saturday night.

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It was a close fight between world No. 7 Feng and Lakshya, ranked 12th, in the opening game till 17 points before the Chinese surged ahead with aggressive play as the Indian committed some unforced errors to take the lead. But world championships bronze medallist Lakshya was in no mood to give up without a fight and bounced back strongly in the second game. The decider was a carbon copy of the first game as Feng took the early initiative to lead 11-8 at the break.

But Lakshya kept himself in the hunt till 17 points before his Chinese opponent pressed the accelerator to pocket the game and the contest. Lakshya, who enjoyed an 5-2 win-loss record against Feng coming into the match, had defeated the Chinese 21-18, 22-20 to win the Canada Open, his second BWF Super 500 title last week.

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