Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Lakshya Sen continued his dream run at the All England Open as he packed off sixth seed and former champion Li Shi Feng in straights games to reach the semifinals in London on March 6. Sen, the 2022 All England finalist, defeated Li 21-13, 21-16 in exactly an hour to set up a last four clash against Canada’s Victor Lai, who got the better of Japan’s Koki Watanabe 18-21, 21-17, 21-15 in the other quarterfinals.
The 24-year-old Sen, the only Indian left in the fray, had begun his campaign with an upset win over top seed and defending champion Shi Yu Qi and then accounted for the experienced NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in the second round. The Indian was clearly high on confidence going into the quarterfinals against Li, with whom he had a head to head record of 7-7 before the match.
The world no 12 adopted an aggressive approach and opened up a 10-4 lead in the opening game before the Chinese closed the gap at 15-13. But Sen responded by winning six consecutive points to wrap up the game. The second game was a close affair as Li began on a strong note and even hand a one point advantage going into the mid game interval.
But Sen bagged four straight points from 14-13 to open up a lead and then ensured that Li had no chances of a comeback to seal the semifinals berth. Later speaking about the match, Sen said he was only focused not making mistakes in the long rallies as both of them were getting quite tired. *“There were a lot of long rallies and I was getting tired. But the coach told me that he is also getting tired and I just ensured that I didn’t make mistakes,”* he said.
