Tokyo, July 28: India’s Lakshya Sen defeated Japan’s Koki Watanabe in straight games to reach the Japan Open 2023 men’s singles semifinal on Friday (July 28) at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
The recent Canada Open champion Sen beat the unseeded Japanese shuttler 21-15, 21-19 in the quarterfinal match that lasted 47 minutes on court 2. This is Sen’s third consecutive semifinal on the BWF World Tour. He reached the last four earlier this month at the Canada Open and US Open.
(Read Also: Buoyant Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Eyeing Another Title)
Sen opened up a 5-3 lead early in the first game before moving to 11-7 at the break. The Indians didn’t have much problem negotiating with the Japanese and soon sealed the opening game 21-15 with two cross-court returns on both sides of the court.
After the change of sides, Watanabe fought back and soon took a 7-14 lead in the second game. But, the Indian scripted a turnaround, drawing his opponent to the net and using the drop shots to good effect to seal the game and match after taking the second game 21-19.
The world no.13 will next face fifth-seeded Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the last-four clash of the Japan Open Super 750 tournament on Saturday (July 29). This will be the Indians’ third meeting with the Indonesians and their current head-to-head stands at 1-1.
While the 21-year-old Sen progressed to the semi-final, it was the end of the road for Korea Open doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty pair and Malaysia Masters winner HS Prannoy after they came down fighting in their respective quarterfinal matches.
In-form men’s doubles Rankireddy and Shetty couldn’t produce their ‘A’ game as the pair lost 15-21 25-23 16-21 to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei in the last eight match that lasted for an hour and 10 minutes on court 1.
In the other men’s singles match on court 1, Prannoy fought hard against top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, winning the first game 21-19 and continued to show his mettle in the second essay before dropping the game 19-21 to the Dane.
In the decider, the Axelsen took full control, racing to a six-point lead at the interval before sealing the game and the quarter-final match by winning the final game 21-8. The match lasted for an hour and 16 minutes on court 1.
