Japan open: Lone wolf Sen devours Watanabe to make semis

PTI

Tokyo, July 28

Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen progressed to the semifinals to be the lone Indian survivor at the Japan Open Super 750 following the losses of compatriots HS Prannoy and doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy here today.

World No. 13 Sen registered a 21-15 21-19 victory over local hope and world No. 33 Koki Watanabe to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.

The reigning CWG champion will play fifth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the semifinals.

World No. 10 Prannoy, too, could have joined Sen in the last-four but he squandered an opening game win and a 7-1 advantage in the second to eventually suffer a heartbreaking 21-19 18-21 8-21 loss to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag went down fighting 15-21 25-23 16-21 to Olympics champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei to end their 12-match winning streak.

Sen fights back

Sen, who had won the Canada Open Super 500 earlier this month, opened up a 5-3 lead early on before moving to 11-7 at the break.

The Indian didn’t have much problem negotiating the Japanese and soon sealed the opening game with two crosscourt returns on both sides of the court.

After the change of sides, Watanabe tried to inject some pace in the rallies but Sen looked in control and moved to 3-2 with a lovely crosscourt drop. A 42-shot rally ended with Sen’s backhand crashing into the net as Watanabe turned it around to lead 5-3 before moving to 7-3.

The Japanese strengthened his defence and things seemed like going downhill for Sen, who trailed 7-14.

However, the Indian scripted a turnaround, drawing his opponent to the net and using the drop shots to good effect and lead 18-17.

With two returns on his opponent’s backhand, Sen gained a match point before producing another precise return at the back-line and then threw his racquet in celebration.

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