US Open: Lakshya Sen reaches semis, Sindhu bows out

Council Bluffs (USA), July 15:  Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen reached the men's singles semifinals of the US Open 2023 but two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu lost her women's singles match and crashed out of the tournament, here.

Lakshya defeated compatriot S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian 21-10, 21-17 in his quarterfinal match on Friday night.

Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Sen dominated S Sankar and raced to a 7-1 lead early on and rode the momentum to take the first game. The second game saw S Sankar put up a sterner fight but it wasn't enough to push the match to a third game and Lakshya eventually won the contest in 38 minutes.

The 21-year old Sen, currently ranked 12th in the badminton rankings, will face reigning All England champion and world No. 7 Li Shi Feng of China next for a place in the final.

Interestingly, the two shuttlers met in the Canada Open final last week, where Lakshya emerged as the winner. Head-to-head, the Indian holds a 5-3 record against his Chinese opponent.

On the other hand, Sindhu lost 20-22, 13-21 against China's Gao Fang Jie in the quarterfinals.

Sindhu, currently 12th in the BWF world badminton rankings, was playing catchup to Gao Fang Jie for most of the first game.

Despite the dominance of the Chinese shuttler, the Indian badminton player kept attacking and levelled the scores at 20-all. However, Sindhu's effort fell short as Gao Fang Jie won the final two points to take the lead.

The second game was closely-fought early on with the lead exchanging hands several times. With the scores tied at nine-all Gao Fang Jie won five consecutive points to take a healthy lead. The Chinese badminton player kept firm control on the proceedings and pocketed the match in 49 minutes.

This was Sindhu's fourth loss to Gao Fang Jie in five head-to-head meetings.