Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen’s campaign in the Thailand Open event came to an end after he lost his semi -final contest against world No. 5. Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in Bangkok on Saturday.
Lakshya Sen went down fighting 21-13, 17-21, 13-21 and with this Indian challenge ended in this tournament .
Playing at the Indoor Stadium Huamark, Lakshya Sen started strongly as he pulled to a 7-4 lead early on and kicked on to cruise to win the first game. The Indian and the Thai went neck-and-neck for most of the second game. With the scores reading 17-all, the Thai shuttler stepped up to win the next four points in a row and kept himself alive in the contest.
In the decider, Lakshya Sen smashed his way to take a slender 11-10 lead going into the break. On return, Kunlavut Vitidsarn raised his game and won 11 of the next 13 points to knock the Indian out.
With this defeat, Lakshya Sen trails Kunlavut Vitidsarn 5-3 in the head-to-head record.
World championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen beat Malaysian qualifier Leong Jun Hao in the quarter-finals to earn a place in the last four. The Indian also accounted for some big names at the Bangkok meet, including the fourth seed and reigning All England Open champion Li Shi Feng and former world No. 9 Wang Tzu Wei.
Lakshya Sen has endured a difficult 2023 season and this was his first semi-final appearance of the year. His previous best performance was making the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters.
Ranked No. 23 in the badminton rankings, the Indian was aiming to make his first BWF World Tour final since reaching the All England Open 2022
title clash.
Earlier, India’s challenge in the women’s singles event ended with the exit of Saina Nehwal in the round of 16 while PV Sindhu
lost in the first round. The Thailand Open will conclude on Sunday.