Tokyo: India's Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run, notching up a straight-game win over local hope Koki Watanabe to progress to the semifinals of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
A 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, world No. 13 Lakshya registered a 21-15, 21-19 victory over Watanabe, ranked 33rd, to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.
The 21-year-old from Almora, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will play fifth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie for a place in the final.
H S Prannoy went down to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen in a thrilling quarterfinal clash. Keralite Prannoy fought back to win the opening game 21-19.
Prannoy raced to a 5-0 lead and had an 11-7 advantage at the break in the second game. But Axelsen bounced back to win the game 21-18.
The Dane took control of the decider and closed out the tie 21-8.
The in-form men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, couldn't produce their 'A' game, going down 15-21, 25-23, 16-21 to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei.
Lakshya, who had won the Canada Open Super 500 early this month, opened up a 5-3 lead early on before moving to 11-7 at the break. The Indian didn't have much problem negotiating the Japanese and soon sealed the opening game with two cross court returns on both side of the court.
After the change of sides, Watanabe tried to inject some pace in the rallies but Lakshya looked in control and moved to 3-2 with a lovely cross court drop. A 42-shot rally ended with Lakshya's backhand crashing into the net as Watanabe turned it around to lead 5-3 before consolidating it further at 7-3.
The Japanese strengthened his defence as soon things seemed like going down the downhill for Lakshya, who trailed 7-14.
However, the Indian scripted a turnaround, drawing his opponent to the net and using the drop shots to good effect. He soon turned the tables at 18-17 with a cross court smash.
With two returns on his opponent's backhand, Lakshya gained one-match point before producing another precise return at the back-line and then threw his racquet in celebration.
