sydney, 21 November. World Championship 2021 bronze medalist Lakshya Sen entered the men’s singles semi-finals of the Australian Open Super 500 badminton tournament by defeating compatriot young shuttler Ayush Shetty in straight games here on Friday. But the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty could not perform as per their top seeding and had to face defeat in the quarter-finals.

Lakshya defeated Ayush in straight games

24-year-old Lakshya Sen, India’s top shuttler in the current BWF world rankings, entered the last four by winning 23-21, 21-11 in a match that lasted 53 minutes on court number two of Sydney Olympic Park. World No. 32 Ayush, who won his first Super 300 title through the US Open earlier this year, put up a tough challenge in the first game and chased the target till the tiebreaker, but in the second game, the 20-year-old shuttler from Karnataka could not stand against his renowned opponent.

Sen now has second seed meeting chou tian chen

World number 14 Sen, who reached the semi-finals on the BWF Tour for the second consecutive week, will face second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. Chou, ranked ninth in the world and 2018 Asian Games silver medalist, defeated Farhan Alvi 13-21, 23-21, 21-16 in a marathon match that lasted one hour and 23 minutes. Alvi had broken the challenge of India’s HS Prannoy in the previous round.

Satwik-Chirag lost to fifth seed Indonesian pair

⁠On the other hand, India got a shock in the men’s doubles, when in the fifth match of the day on court number one, world number three Satwik and Chirag were shown the way out by defeating the fifth seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 21-19, 21-15 in 50 minutes.

Lakshya has not been able to win even a single title in the current year

Talking about 24-year-old Sen, who also reached the semi-finals in the Japan Open Masters last week, he had also defeated Shetty in the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open earlier this year. Sen, who is seeking his first title on the tour so far this year, faced a lot of difficulty in the early games. He was trailing 6-9 at one point, but after trailing 9-10, he won four consecutive points and took the lead 13-10.

On the other hand, Shetty took the lead several times in a match full of ups and downs, but in the end Sen leveled the score at 21-21 and then won the first game. The second game was a one-sided affair, with Sen taking an early lead of 6-1, which soon became 15-7 and Shetty’s challenge fizzled out.