India’s badminton star Lakshya Sen is through to a second consecutive final on the BWF tour.
After winning the HYLO Open Super 500 in Saarbrucken, Germany, earlier this month, the 25-year-old on Saturday reached the final of the Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 after beating Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan 21-12, 15-21, 21-11.
The win, in a match that lasted 70 minutes, gave Sen his first triumph against his 21-year-old opponent in three meetings. This was also the first time Sen won a game against the rising star, who won bronze in men’s singles and gold in the men’s team event at the Asian Games in September.
Sen started the match brightly, winning the first three points and, at 9-3, opened up a six-point gap. Farhan did manage to reduce the deficit to three points when he trailed 10-7, only for the Indian to once again assert control over the game after the mid-game interval.
From 11-7, Sen won 10 of the next 15 points to secure the opening game.
After the change of ends, there were a few tight exchanges at the start before Farhan took an 11-4 lead after winning seven points in a row. Sen, however, would not go away and, despite the deficit, continued to rally in the game. He would eventually go on to lose a game for the first time in the tournament this year, having reached the semi-final on the back of three straight-game wins.
In the decider, the in-form Sen took an early 5-2 lead and would not relinquish it. At 8-6, the Indian won five points on the trot to open up a comfortable seven-point gap, setting him on the course to win the game 21-11 and reach the final of a BWF tour event for the third time this year.
He had reached the final of the All England Championships in March before the triumph in Germany. He has now reached the final in Kumamoto for the first time, improving on last year’s semi-final finish.
In the title clash, he will take on the winner of the second semi-final between home-favourite Koki Watanabe and second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.