Lakshya, Mannepalli reach Macau Open semifinals

Macau, Aug 1 (IANS) Second-seed Lakshya Sen advanced to the BWF Macau Open semifinal after defeating Zhu Xuan Chen of China 21-14, 18-21, 21-14 here at East Asian Games Dome on Friday.

This is Lakshya's first semifinal in 10 BWF tour events since his triumph at the Syed Modi International late last year. He will next take on fifth seed Indonesian Alwi Farhan for a place in the final.

He made a strong start to the match, securing a 6-point lead by the first mid-game interval and comfortably sealing the opening game 21-14. After the change of sides. The Indian held a five-point cushion, but the Chinese shuttler mounted a comeback, levelling the score at 18-all before clinching the next three points to take the game.

Lakshya, however, bounced back in the decider, establishing a lead in the decider, and maintained his grip to close out the match 21-14.

Lakshya battled his way into the quarterfinals after a hard-fought win on Thursday.

Meanwhile, his compatriot Tharun Mannepalli also made his way to the last four after knocking out Chinese shuttler Hu Zhe An 21-12, 13-21, 21-18. He earlier pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the day after staging a remarkable comeback to defeat top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

The world No. 9 men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be in action later in the day against the Malaysian duo Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal.

Satwik and Chirag had fought back from a game down to overcome Japan’s Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi for a place in the quarterfinals.

India’s women’s singles campaign at the Macau Open came to an end on Thursday after the only remaining player in the draw, Rakshitha Ramraj, went down fighting 14-21, 21-10, 21-11 against second seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand.

--IANS

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