Lakshya Sen’s bid for a place in the final was foiled by China’s Li Shi Feng and the Indian bowed out of the US Open Badminton after losing in the singles semi-finals in Iowa.
With Lakshya Sen’s exit, the Indian challenge at the BWF Super 300-tournament came to an end. Earlier, PV Sindhu lost in the quarter-finals of women’s singles.
The reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng in the process took a sweet revenge of the defeat he had suffered at the hands of the Indian in the final of Canada Open last week.
Playing on the courts of the Mid-America Centre, Lakshya Sen was slow off the blocks early on as world No. 7 Li Shi Feng, raced to a 15-9 lead. The World no 12 Indian tried to stage a comeback but couldn’t stop the Chinese from taking the lead.
The second game was a closely-fought affair as Lakshya Sen and Li Shi Feng went toe-to-toe. With the scores tied at 11-all, the Indian unleashed a series of smashes in an attempt to seize control of the match but the Chinese defended well to stay in the game. Lakshya raised his game in tense final exchanges and took the match into the decider.
Lakshya, however, failed to carry the momentum into the third game as he trailed Li Shi Feng by a 14-8 margin. The Indian managed to reduce
the gap to 17-15 but couldn’t stop Li Shi Feng from winning the 76-minute marathon affair.
After this defeat, Lakshya Sen holds a 5-4 head-to-head record over Li Shi Feng.
