India’s Lakshya Sen cruised in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Japan Open 2023 badminton tournament on Friday while compatriot HS Prannoy crashed out.
Lakshya Sen defeated home-favourite Koki Watanabe of Japan 21-15, 21-19 to seal a place in the last four of the BWF Super 750 tournament. Lakshya Sen will face world No. 9 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia next for a place in the final.
HS Prannoy lost 21-19, 18-21, 8-21 to reigning world and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a hard-fought quarter-final encounter.
India’s challenge in the men’s doubles, meanwhile, ended after the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out in the quarter-finals. The duo lost 21-15, 23-25, 21-16 to reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei. The match, however, was closely fought and lasted 70 minutes.
Results at the Japan Open will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.
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