Lakshya Sen outclassed fellow Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty in the quarte-finals of the Hong Kong Open in what was quite an evenly-matched 66-minute encounter. With this, Sen brought an end to Ayush's brilliant run and booked his place into the semi-finals of a tournament for the first time in the 2025 season.
Despite being quite inexperienced in comparison to Sen when it comes to international competitions, Ayush gave India's No.1 men's shuttler a run for his money. Despite Sen winning the first game by 21-16, Ayush refused to go down easily and won the second game by 17-21. However, Sen would step up his game in the third set and would win it by 21-13.
Notably, Ayush was the second Indian shuttler that Sen has defeated in the Hong Kong Open as he had knocked H.S. Prannoy out of the tournament in the pre-quarter-finals. Nevertheless, Shetty can hold his head high as he gave multiple impressive performances during the tournament.
Ayush defeated Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei in the Round of 32 before eliminating World No. 7 Kodai Naraoka in the pre-quarter finals. Both of these matches were decided in the third game and they must have taken a toll on the 20-year-old's body.
Sen to face World No.3 next
On the other hand, Sen is now the only Indian player left in the Men's Singles and will definitely be aiming to make it all the way to the final of the Hong Kong open. He will now be facing World No.3 Chou Tien Chen in the semi-finals on September 13. Notably, Sen had faced the Taiwanese shuttler in the 2024 Paris Olympics as well and had emerged victorious in a thrilling 3-game competition.
Meanwhile, it turned out to be great day for the Indian shuttlers as the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved into the semi-finals of the Men's Doubles after defeating the Malaysian pair of Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap 21-14, 20-22, 21-16. They will now be going up against Chen Cheng Kuan and Lin Bing-Wei of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals.