US Open Badminton: Lakshya Sen enters men's singles semifinals; PV Sindhu's journey ends

Canada Open champion Lakshya Sen has reached the last four of the US Open badminton Super 300 tournament, while two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out of the quarterfinals after suffering a straight-game loss on Friday.

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Lakshya defeated compatriot S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian by 21-10, 21-17. Sen will face China'sLi Shi Feng in the US Open Badminton semi-finals. Interestingly, the two shuttlers met in the Canada Open final last week, where Lakshya Sen emerged as the winner. Head-to-head, the Indian holds a 5-3 record over Li Shi Feng.

Lakshya Sen, who won the Canada Open earlier this month, rode the momentum to take the first game. The second game saw S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian put up a sterner fight but it wasn't enough to push the match to a third game. Lakshya Sen won the contest in 38 minutes.

On the other hand, Sindhu, ranked 12th in the world, was defeated by China's Gao Fang Jie 22-20, 21-13. This was PV Sindhu's 5th encounter against Gao Fang, in this, the Indian player has got 4 defeats. Earlier, Sindhu had defeated the Chinese player in the Canada Open last week. But this time she could not repeat the feat. Sindhu was troubled by her 36th-ranked opponent.

Also Read: US Open Badminton: PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen progress to the quarter-finals

Sindhu was playing catchup to Gao Fang Jie for most of the first game. Despite the dominance of the Chinese shuttler, the Indian badminton player kept attacking and levelled the scores at 20-all. However, PV Sindhu''s effort fell short as Gao Fang Jie won the final two points to take the lead.

The second game was closely-fought early on with the lead exchanging hands several times. With the scores tied at nine-all Gao Fang Jie won five consecutive points to take a healthy lead. The Chinese badminton player kept firm control on the proceedings and pocketed the match in 49 minutes.