Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty suffer shock exit
IMAGE: Lakshya Sen had to fight hard to scrape out a win over compatriot Ayush Shetty on Friday. Photograph: ANI Photo
World championship bronze-medallist shuttler Lakshya Sen overcame a resolute Ayush Shetty in straight games to secure a place in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Australian Open Super 500 badminton tournament in Sydney on Friday.
The seventh-seeded Indian, who had beaten the 20-year-old Shetty at the same stage in the Hong Kong Open earlier this year, won 23-21, 21-11 to set up a last-four clash against Chinese-Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, the second-seed in the event.
Meanwhile, India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, made a surprising exit, losing to Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Fajar Alfian later Friday.
The top-seeded Indian duo, ranked third in men’s doubles, lost 19-21, 15-21 to the 13th-ranked Indonesian pair in 50minutes.
Chou, ranked No. 9 in the world and a 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, overcame Farhan Alwi 13-21, 23-21, 21-16 in a match lasting a marathon 1 hour, 23 minutes.
Alwi had defeated Indian stalwart HS Prannoy in the round of 16.
Sen, 26, who had made it to the Hong Kong Open final but has gone without a title this year, had a tough time beating Shetty in the opening game with the higher-ranked Indian trailing 6-9 before he won four successive points while trailing 9-10 to take the upper hand at 13-10.
However, Shetty the US Open Super 300 champion earlier this year, clawed back to take the lead multiple times in a see-saw battle before levelling it at 21-all when the senior pro finally closed out the opener.
The second game of the 53-minute contest turned out to be one-sided one with Sen taking an early 6-1 lead, which swelled to 15-7 in no time as Shetty’s challenge wilted.
Sen is the only Indian remaining in men’s singles after senior pros Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth had made early exits on Thursday.
