Badminton News: Badminton Men’s Singles, Lakshya Sen lost to host second seed, Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the men’s singles semi-final at the Thailand Open which also marked the end of India’s participation at the tournament.

The 21-year-old from Almora got off to a good start winning the opener against her seeded opponent but failed to maintain the momentum and ended up losing 21-13, 17-21 13-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.

Kunlavut will next face the winner of the other semi-final between eighth seeded Hong Kong Cheuk Yiu Lee and Frenchman Toma Junior Popov.

Lakshya Sen advances to the semi-finals for the first time this season, after narrowly missing the Indonesian Masters, where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals. His ranking fell to 23 from a career high due to a string of poor performances this year.

There was a tight competition between the two badminton players in the opener before Lakshya popped up to take an 11-6 lead at the break. The Thai appeared strong after the break and grabbed four straight points to cut the lead to 11-10.

But Lakshya stepped up his game just in time to take a five-point lead and close out the opener quite easily without giving his opponent any chance.

Game two was played out evenly between the two players as they battled for 10 points before Kunlavut used their cross shot to take a narrow 12-10 lead for the first time in the game.

The Indian athlete, however, fought his way through with the help of long rallies and precise drop shots as the battle continued between the two players. But Kunlavut stepped up their game several notches and pocketed four straight points to win Game 2 and take the game to a decider.

In the deciding game, the momentum initially turned in Kunlavut’s favor as they raced to a 5-2 lead, but Lakshya fought back as the two fought tooth and nail.

The long rally finally worked against the Indians, who looked tired as the final game wore on, giving Kunlavut an 18-12 lead and then Thailand closing out the decider quite young and through to the final.

Article Tags: Lakshya Sen, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Thailand Open 2023