Hong Kong Open: India's Lakshya Sen agonisingly falls short in final to settle for silver

Hong Kong, September 14 (ANI): India shuttler Lakshya Sen floundered in the final and settled for silver after falling to a comprehensive defeat in the men's singles final against China's Li Shi Feng at the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.

Despite flashes of brilliance, world number 20 Lakshya lost in straight games against world number 4 Li at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The Chinese dictated the flow of the play from the net and sealed a 15-21, 12-21 victory to take the gold after 45 minutes of intense battle.

With a crisp play at the net, Lakshya started boldly with a 4-0 lead, but Li announced his arrival with a ruthless smash to chop down the deficit to three in the opener. After a lively start, the Indian perished after a couple of soft errors to bring down the scoreline at 5-3.

Li continued to push Lakshya's back against the wall by pulling off a relentless barrage of smashes. The Indian barely hung on while relying on his defence to maintain his slender 6-4 lead. Li eventually caught up to Lakshya at 8-8 and tried to race to a lead for the first time by targeting the body of the Indian shuttler.

However, Lakshya managed to keep the shuttle in play, and Li went for the kill but sent his smash wide. Despite the slight setback, Li didn't frown and reclaimed the point to restore parity at 9-9. At the mid-game, Li emerged with the lead with the scoreline at 10-11, and after the resumption of the play, he upped the ante to increase the chasm between the two.

Li made explosive strides at the net, and Lakshya had no answer to negate the sharp play from the Chinese. From being down at 9-10, Li bagged seven out of eight points, continued to win the net battle and extended his lead to 13-18. Lakshya struggled to get his lengths right and eventually lost the opening game by 15-21.

In the second game, Lakshya was quick off the blocks and established early dominance with a 4-1 advantage. With the drift behind the Indian shuttler, Lakshya, just like the opening game, started frittering away his decent start as Li levelled at 4-4.

With a run of seven straight points, Li got a complete hold of the proceedings as Lakshya's body language dropped. Lakshya sent a couple of shuttles beyond the baseline, and Li edged close towards the gold.

Lakshya executed a cross-court with his forehand block to pull back one point, but the lack of consistency hurt his chances. Li hammered the final nail in the coffin with a cross-court net shot as China swept the podium across the five categories.

Earlier, India endured another heartbreak after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty finished as runners-up at the Hong Kong Open 2025 after a hard-fought 62-minute contest in the men's doubles event. The Indian pair started strong, taking the opening game 21-19, but sixth-seeded China's Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang bounced back to claim the next two games 21-14, 21-17 and secure the title. (ANI)

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