New Delhi: India's campaign in the home BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament, India Open 2026, came to a premature end with the last home hope, Lakshya Sen, crashing out of the men's singles quarterfinals, losing in three games at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Friday.
Sen, who was India's lone hope in the event after PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and H.S Prannoy fell by the wayside in earlier rounds, went down to Chinese Taipei's World No 12 Lin Chun-Yi. Sen, who is ranked 14th in the BWF Rankings, went down 21-17, 13-21, 18-21 in just over one hour in India's top BWF competition.
In Friday's quarterfinal clash, Sen kept pace with Lin Chun-Yi till the very end but fell short in the final exchanges as he went down in three games. Sen won the opening game against Lin but then struggled from the faster side of the court to go down 17-21, 21-13, 21-18 in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
“It was a close match. The third set was more of a pressure game. He was playing well today as per the conditions. I was not prepared for the wind today. It was not that windy yesterday. He adapted to the conditions better,” said Lakshya after the match. “I was shaky at the net to lift the shuttle and multiple errors from the front,” he added.
Going into the quarterfinal, Sen trailed Lin 0-4 in the head-to-head, and it was clear that the Indian needed to be at his best against the speedy left-hander. His game plan was to keep Lin near the net in the opening game; the Taipei shuttler was playing from the faster side. And the strategy worked as Sen raced ahead after the mid-game interval to pocket the opening game.
But once he changed sides, Sen’s lifts began to go long, and Lin was quick to pounce on shorter lifts and forced a decider.
In the third and final game, Sen began strong by clinching the first four points, but Lin then slowed things down and began dominating the net exchanges to keep pace with the local favourite till the change of ends. Once the players changed ends, Lin earned six straight points to take an 18-15 lead.
To his credit, Sen drew level at 18-18 before Lin stepped on the gas and opted for an all-out attack strategy to win the match in an hour and 8 minutes. He will now face 2025 World Championships bronze medallist Victor Lai of Canada, who defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen 21-18, 17-21, 21-15.
In the other semifinal, former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore will face third seed Joantan Christie of Indonesia.
In the quarterfinals, Loh came from a game down to upset second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 14-21, 21-15, 21-17, while Christie defeated fifth seed Christo Popov of France 21-19, 21-19.
In women’s singles, former champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand defeated Beiwen Zhang 21-16, 21-12, while top seed An Se Young easily got past Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-16, 21-8. The other semifinal will be an all-Chinese affair between second seed Wang Zhi Yi and Chen Yu Fi. IANS
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