Lakshya Sen Reaches Semifinals at BWF Macau Open

Lakshya Sen Advances to Semifinals

Macau, Aug 1: Second-seed Lakshya Sen has successfully moved into the semifinals of the BWF Macau Open, overcoming Zhu Xuan Chen from China with scores of 21-14, 18-21, and 21-14 at the East Asian Games Dome on Friday.

This marks Lakshya's first semifinal appearance in ten BWF tour events since his victory at the Syed Modi International last year. He is set to face fifth-seed Alwi Farhan from Indonesia next for a chance to compete in the final.

Starting strong, Lakshya gained a six-point advantage by the first mid-game interval, comfortably winning the first game 21-14. However, after the break, he maintained a five-point lead until the Chinese player made a comeback, leveling the score at 18-all before taking the game.

In the deciding game, Lakshya regained his momentum, establishing a lead and ultimately securing the match with a score of 21-14.

Earlier, Lakshya had fought hard to reach the quarterfinals with a challenging win on Thursday.

In another exciting development, his fellow Indian player Tharun Mannepalli also reached the semifinals by defeating Chinese shuttler Hu Zhe An with scores of 21-12, 13-21, and 21-18. Tharun had previously achieved a significant upset by defeating top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu from Hong Kong.

Later in the day, the world No. 9 men's doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will compete against the Malaysian pair of Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal. Satwik and Chirag had previously come back from a game down to win against Japan’s Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi to secure their place in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, India's women's singles campaign at the Macau Open concluded on Thursday, as the last remaining player, Rakshitha Ramraj, lost to second seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan from Thailand with scores of 14-21, 21-10, and 21-11.