World championship bronze-medallist Lakshya Sen marched into the men’s singles semifinals of the Australian Open Super 500 after defeating a determined Ayush Shetty in straight games on Friday, extending a rivalry that has steadily grown sharper through the season.
Sen, the tournament’s seventh seed, had also faced Shetty at the same stage of the Hong Kong Open earlier this year, winning that encounter on his way to the final. He repeated the result in Sydney, prevailing 23-21, 21-11 to book a last-four meeting with Chinese Taipei star Chou Tien Chen, the second seed and a seasoned name on the circuit.
Chou, ranked world No. 9 and a 2018 Asian Games silver-medallist, reached the semifinal only after enduring a gruelling 1 hour 23-minute three-game clash against Farhan Alwi. The Indonesian pushed him to the brink before Chou sealed a 13-21, 23-21, 21-16 win. Alwi had earlier created a stir in the draw by knocking out Indian stalwart HS Prannoy in the round of 16.
Also read: Shetty, Lakshya enter quarters
Sen, 26, arrived in Australia searching for his first title of the year despite having reached the Hong Kong Open final. He was made to work hard in the opening game on Friday, falling behind 6-9 before stitching together four consecutive points from 9-10 to move ahead 13-10. But Shetty, the US Open Super 300 champion and one of India’s fastest-rising youngsters, refused to yield, repeatedly reclaiming the lead in a game that swung back and forth before locking at 21-all. Sen finally closed out the opener with controlled aggression and sharper shot selection at the death.
The second game, by contrast, saw Sen assert full command. An early 6-1 lead quickly ballooned to 15-7 as Shetty’s resistance dipped and his defence began to fray. Sen wrapped up the contest in 53 minutes, becoming the only Indian left in the men’s singles draw after Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth’s early exits on Thursday.
However, India suffered a setback in men’s doubles, where top-seeded pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out. The duo, finalists at both the Hong Kong Open and the China Masters this season, were toppled 21-19, 21-15 by the Indonesian fifth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri, bringing an abrupt end to their campaign in Sydney.
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