Sydney: India's ace shuttler Lakshya Sen defeated Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen in a spectacular semifinal to advance to the Australian Open Super 500 final on Saturday at Sydney Olympic Park.
Sen rallied from a game down to overcome second seed Chen 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 in just one hour and 26 minutes.
Sen, who is still chasing his first title of the season, started the match under pressure as Chen took an early lead of 4-0 and entered the break with a score of 11-6. The Indian tried to reduce the deficit but Chen clinched the game 21-17.
The second game saw a fierce battle between the two players to take advantage from the beginning. The lead was briefly swapped by them before Sen showed his prowess in the tense situation to take two consecutive points at 22-22 to seal the game, IANS reported.
In the final game, Sen quickly seized control, heading into the mid-game break with an 11–6 advantage. He stretched the lead to 14–7, and a service fault from Chen widened the gap to 17–9. A sharp cross-court smash then handed Sen eight match points. Though Chen managed to save four of them, he eventually sent a shot into the net, allowing Sen to complete a strong comeback win.
Sen is the lone Indian alive in the tournament after he powered past a determined Ayush Shetty in straight games to reach the semifinal on Friday.
In men’s doubles, top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who cruised into the quarterfinals with a comfortable win over Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun of Chinese Taipei, lost to fifth seeds Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 19-21, 15-21 to bow out of the tournament.
Earlier, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth made early exits in the men’s singles on Thursday.