Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 15: World championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen stormed into men’s singles final of the ongoing India Open 2022 on Saturday. He won his first World Tour Super 500 summit match beating Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open.
Sen, ranked 17th in the world, will now face defending world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the final on Sunday, a rematch of last year’s Dutch Open final.
In a thrilling semifinal match, the 20-year-old from Almora defeated world number 60 Yong 19-21 21-16 21-12, joining his coach Prakash Padukone, B Sai Praneeth, and Kidambi Srikanth as medalists in the World Championships last month.
“It is a good feeling to play my first super 500 final at my home country. The first game was pretty close, I did some errors which cost me. But I kept my calm in the second and third game and managed to pull out,” said Lakshya Sen after the match.
After having a sore throat and headache, Loh, who was ranked fifth, was handed a walkover in the other semi-finals by Canada’s Brian Yang. Sen will be itching to clear the air after losing to Loh in the Dutch Open final. Sen has lost two of the last three meetings, giving the duo a 2-2 head-to-head record.
“Both of us are playing well, it will be a good match tomorrow and I am really looking forward to playing him,” said Sen about his final clash.
During the last four match, both shuttlers demonstrated their offensive skills. Sen used his returns to move his opponent around the court and his smashes to open up a four-point lead at 10-6 after falling behind 2-4 at the start. After Yong’s wide, the Indians went into the halftime break down 11-8.
Sen came out of the break with some hard smashes to scare the Malaysian, but he couldn’t keep the pressure on as Yong tied the game at 14-14. With a perfect net shot, the Malaysian caught Sen off guard and took the lead.
After then, Yong won a video referral to take a 16-14 lead. Sen regained control of the game after that, bringing the score to 17-17. When a return of serve from Sen went wide, Yong secured two game points and comfortably finished the match.
In the second game, Yong kept the momentum going, taking a 4-1 lead. Sen did a good job of erasing the gap, but Young made sure he was ahead at halftime. Sen resumed his efforts to turn things around around 9-11 a.m. With a strong drive away from his opponent’s forehand, he drew level at 13-13 and carved his way to a 19-16 lead. Sen scored four game points when Yong made a net error, and he clinched the victory when Yong made another net error.
Sen got out to a strong start in the decider, leading 4-1 and then reaching 9-5 with another cross court jump smash. Sen went into the halftime break with a large six-point lead, thanks to another precision shot from the baseline and Yong’s miss.
Sen went on a hitting tear after that, rapidly extending his advantage to 18-12. With a drop, he grabbed eight match points and clinched it quickly after his opponent went to the net again.
Before COVID-19, Sen had won two Super 100 titles, the Dutch Open and the SaarLorLux Open, as well as three foreign challenges in Belgium, Scotland, and Bangladesh.
