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India’s Lakshya Sen secured his maiden Super 500 title by winning the Yonex-Sunrise India Open on Sunday (January 16). The Indian shuttler won the men's singles final of the ongoing India Open 2022 at the KD Jadhav Stadium. He edged past reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the men’s singles with a stunning straight-game victory over.
Sen produced a fine performance to overcome the fifth seeded shuttler 24-22, 21-17 in the summit clash that lasted for 54 minutes.
Only the third Indian player
Sen won the India Open on his debut only, becoming the first Indian to do so. He is the third Indian men's singles player after Prakash Padukone (in 1981) and Srikanth Kidambi (in 2015) to win the India Open title. He is the first men's singles player from India to win a BWF Super 500 or a higher title as this current format was started in 2018.
The 20-year-old badminton player had claimed his maiden World Championships medal after securing a bronze medal in Spain, last month.
On the other hand, in the doubles final, top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty scripted an impressive straight-game win over three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia to become the first men’s team from the country to win the Yonex-Sunrise India Open.
Another victory for the Indian pair
The world No. 10 Indian pair, which had won its first Super 500 tournament in Thailand in 2019, upset the top seeded Indonesian pair 21-16, 26-24 to make a rampaging start to the new season. The summit clash had lasted for 43 minutes.
From almost missing the tournament following a false Covid-19 positive result to winning the title, life has come full circle for the Indian pair as they got valuable ranking points ahead of a busy season, which comprises some big-ticket events such as the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
The duo also claimed the silver medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, besides winning the Hyderabad Open Super 100 and finishing runners-up at Syed Modi International in 2018. Satwik and Chirag also played a crucial role in earning India’s historic mixed team gold medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
