Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles semifinals of the Australian Open Super 500 on Friday, outclassing fellow Indian Ayush Shetty in straight games at Sydney Olympic Park.
The seventh seed, who had also beaten the 20-year-old at the same stage of the Hong Kong Open earlier this year, prevailed 23–21, 21–11 to set up a semifinal clash with second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
World No. 9 Chou, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, fought past Farhan Alwi 13–21, 23–21, 21–16 in a gruelling 1-hour-23-minute contest. Alwi had earlier stunned Indian veteran HS Prannoy in the round of 16.
Sen, 26, who reached the Hong Kong Open final earlier this year but is still searching for his first title of the season, faced stiff resistance from Shetty in the opening game. Trailing 6–9, Sen stitched together four straight points from 9–10 to move ahead 13–10. Shetty — the US Open Super 300 champion — kept pushing in a fluctuating opener and even levelled at 21–21 before Sen closed it out.
The second game of the 53-minute match was far more straightforward, with Sen racing to a 6–1 lead and extending it to 15–7 as Shetty’s challenge waned. Sen now remains India’s sole contender following early exits for Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth in the men’s singles draw on Thursday.
In men’s doubles, top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who had cruised into the quarterfinals with a comfortable win over Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun of Chinese Taipei, went down to fifth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri of Indonesia 19–21, 15–21 to exit the tournament.
–IANS
