New Delhi: Indian shuttle player Lakshya Sen advanced to the semi-finals of the Japan Open Super 750 in Tokyo on Friday, defeating world No. 33 Koki Watanabe in straight sets 21-15, 21-19.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy out of Japan Open

Meanwhile, world No. 2 doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lan (Chinese Taipei) 15-21, 25-23, 16-16. At 21, he lost after a close battle.

Lakshya Sen’s match

Within the opening game of Sen’s match, both players remained close on the score within the opening trades. In any case, at 6-6, Sen won three focuses in a push to require a lead that he would hold onto comfortably to win the primary game.

In the second, Watanabe had dashed to a 14-6 lead, but the Indian consistently clawed his way back into the diversion. Trailing 14-17, Sen won seven of the following nine focuses to win the match. This is his third sequential appearance within the semi-final of a BWF World Visit occasion. He had won the Canada Open Super 500, taken after by a semi-final wrap up at the US Open Super 300 prior this month.

#JapanOpen2023🏸 Update☑️

Ace 🇮🇳 shuttler & #TOPSchemeAthlete @lakshya_sen makes it to the the SF of Japan Open after beating home favourite Koki Watanabe 21-15 & 21-19 in today's nail biter!

Many congratulations champ & best wishes for the SF 🥳💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/2G9VPTMkPz

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) July 28, 2023

Rankireddy & Shetty match recap

Rankireddy and Shetty had saved three match points within the second game of their match against Lee and Wang some time recently winning it by a near 25-23 scoreline and taking the coordinate into the choosing game. In the third amusement in any case, the Chinese Taipei group driven from the begin. They took a sizeable 19-12 lead and inevitably near out the choosing amusement 21-16.

HS Prannoy to face Viktor Axelsen

The Indians had a chance of getting to be world No 1 ought to they have gone on to win the tournament. Later within the day, HS Prannoy will play against best seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

What is BWF World Tour?

The BWF World Tour is a Grade 2 level tournament, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). It may be a competition open to the beat world positioned players in singles (men’s and women’s) and doubles (men’s, women’s and mixed).

The competition was announced on 19 March 2017 and came into impact beginning from 2018, supplanting the BWF Super Series, which was held from 2007 to 2017.

The BWF World Tour are divided into six levels, specifically World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, and Super 300 in arrange (portion of the HSBC World Tour). One other category of competition, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, too offers ranking positions.