Lakshya enters semifinals of Japan Open

Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen progressed to the semifinals 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 number 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. World number 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 number one 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. After the change of sides, Watanabe tried to inject some pace in the rallies but Sen looked in control and moved to 3-2 with a lovely cross-court drop. A 42-shot rally ended with Sen’s backhand crashing into the net as Watanabe turned it around to lead 5-3 before consolidating it further at 7-3.