India’s Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run, notching up a straight-game win over local hope Koki Watanabe to progress to the semifinals of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
A 2021 world championship bronze medallist, world number 13 Sen registered a 21-15 21-19 victory over Watanabe, ranked 33rd, to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.
The 21-year-old from Almora, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will play either fifth-seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie or third-seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand.
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Sen, who had won the Canada Open Super 500 early this month, opened up with an early 5-3 lead before moving to 11-7 at the break. The Indian didn’t have much of a problem negotiating with 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.
The Japanese strengthened his defence as soon as things started going downhill for Sen, who trailed 7-14.
However, the Indian scripted a turnaround, drawing his opponent to the net and using the drop shots effectively. He soon turned the tables at 18-17 with a cross-court smash.
With two returns on his opponent’s backhand, Sen gained one-match point before producing another precise return at the back-line before throwing his racquet in celebration.
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.
In-form men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, couldn’t produce their ‘A’ game, going down fighting 15-21 25-23 16-21 to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei.
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The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
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