Lakshya Sen storms into Badminton Asia Junior C'ships final

Jakarta: India's Lakshya Sen crushed home favourite Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay to storm into the men's singles final of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships here on Saturday.

The Indian sixth seed registered an easy 21-7, 21-14 victory in 40 minutes over fourth-seeded Kumbay to set-up a title clash with Thai top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

Vitidsarn got past Chinese third seed Yupeng Bai with a 21-14, 21-12 victory in 41 minutes in the other Under-19 semifinal.

Lakshya said that he has never faced Vitidsarn before but promised to give his best. "I will definitely try and give my best shot against the top-seed".

"It feels good to be in the final. I am happy with the way I am playing now and hope to maintain the tempo in tomorrow's final," said the 2016 edition bronze medallist after the semifinal.

Against Rumbay, Lakshya reeled off points in quick succession in the first game. He was quick on his feet and smashed anything tossed up to him by the local boy. Lakshya raced to a solid lead when Rumbay picked up a few points to launch himself.

Though the match took 40 minutes, the first game was over in less than 16 minutes.

In the second game, however, Rumbay did well to resurrect himself but the Indian was always ahead by at least three points. Rumbay resorted to long rallies but that didn't trouble Lakshya as he fought off the home challenger.

The fourth seed Indonesian played well in the second, but could never come close to challenge the authority of Lakshya.

There were, of course, a couple of occasions when Rumbay with some good net-play and cross-court smashes surprised the Indian. But Lakshya was quick enough to return the compliment, in his own way.

If he wins the final, Lakshya will bid to become only the third Indian after Gautam Thakkar (1965) and P V Sindhu (2012) to pocket a gold medal at the Asia Junior Championships.

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