India’s top-seeded shuttler Lakshya Sen booked his slot in the next round of Men’s Singles at Japan Open 2023. Sen took down Japan’s Koki Watanabe in two straight sets by 21-15, 21-19 to continue his dream run in the Super 750 badminton tournament.
Fighting at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, the World Number 13 gave a tough fight to gain an early advantage in the game. The second game saw Sen catching up with his rival, who took a 16-10 lead. However, the 21-year-old was in no mood to lose, and he soon took the game to 19-all before getting two crucial points to sail into the next round. He will now face fifth seed Jonatan Christie in the semifinal.
On the other hand, world number 2 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s winning streak ended as they slumped to the Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Yang & Wang Chi-lin. Sat-Chi got defeated to the world number 18 and Olympic Champions by 15-21, 25-23, 16-21 in a hard-fought battle that lasted around 1 hour 10 minutes.
After losing the first game 15-21, the Indian shuttlers were down 17-19, but they showed extreme grit and fought back to take the lead in the deciding game and extending the match to a third game. However, Lee and Wang took the lead in the third game and secured the win 16-21, ending Sat-Chi's 12-win streak.
While Sen won the Canada Open 2023, Sat-Chi duo has won four titles on the BWF World Tour this year, Swiss Open, Asian Championships, Indonesia Open and Korea Open.
