Lakshya Sen came up with a spirited performance to defeat Hong Kong China’s Angus Ng Ka Long in three games. He advances to the semi-finals of the first King Cup International Badminton Open in Shenzhen, China, on Friday. The 12th-ranked Indian, who nearly missed out on a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics after losing in the playoff, beat his 30-year-old opponent 10-21, 21-13, 21-13.
Lakshya got off to a slow start against the 17th-ranked opponent. But he quickly won the following two games to defeat Long for the first time in four attempts. The 23-year-old from Almora ended a title drought by winning the Syed Modi Super 300 tournament in Lucknow earlier this month. Is one of eight world-class shuttlers fighting for the top prize in the three-day event.
Lin Dan, a two-time Olympic champion from China, founded the tournament. Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand and Anders Antonsen of Denmark are the highest-ranked players in the competition, which will not provide ranking points because it is not on the BWF calendar. Other prominent players include former World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore and Frenchman Alex Lanier. China is represented by Hu Zhe An and Wang Zi Jun, both 18 years old.
India’s King Cup Semi-Final Hero
In the semi-finals on Saturday, Lakshya Sen will face 18-year-old Chinese teenager Hu Zhe An, who defeated Singapore’s former world champion Loh Kean Yew. Hu Zhe’an is 183rd in the senior rankings, but he is the current junior world champion and junior world number one. The competition uses a single-elimination format. This is the inaugural edition of the King Cup badminton tournament.
On Saturday, legendary players Lin Dan and Taufik Hidayat will play an exhibition game. The King Cup International Badminton Open does not offer ranking points and is not a part of the BWF calendar. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) confirmed Monday that Kumar Nitesh, India’s Paralympic champion. He has been nominated for men’s Para-Badminton Player of the Year alongside three others. Nitesh, who won his first gold medal in the SL3 category at the Paris Paralympics
