Lone ranger Lakshya at Japan Open

Sen sole Indian in the fray after Prannoy, Sat-Chi bow out; beats Japan’s Watanabe to enter semis

Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen progressed to the semi-finals to be the lone Indian survivor at the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament following the ouster of compatriots HS Prannoy and doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy here on Friday.

World No. 13 Sen registered a 21-15, 21-19 victory over local player Koki Watanabe, ranked 33rd, to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.

The reigning Commonwealth Games champion will play fifth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the semifinals.

Also Read: Padukone hails India’s badminton overall upsurge

World No. 10 Prannoy too could have joined Sen in the last four, but he squandered an opening game win and a 7-1 advantage in the second to eventually suffer a heart-breaking 21-19, 18-21, 8-21 loss against World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too went down fighting 15-21, 25-23, 16-21 to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei to end their 12-match winning streak. A 2021 World Championship bronze medallist, Sen, who had won the Canada Open Super 500 early this month, opened up a 5-3 lead early on before moving to 11-7 at the break. 

The Indian didn’t have much problem negotiating the Japanese and soon sealed the opening game with two cross-court returns on both sides of the court.

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