Sydney: Star Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles final of the Australian Open Super 500 with a gritty three-game win over world number six Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, here Saturday.
Showing mental toughness, Lakshya recovered from an opening-game setback and saved three match points in the second game to register a 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 win over second seed Taiwanese in an 86-minute semifinal.
The 24-year-old, who reached the Hong Kong Open final earlier this year but is yet to win a title this season, will face Japan’s Yushi Tanaka in the summit clash.
However, Satwik and Chirag, who had reached the finals of the Hong Kong Open and China Masters, were shown the door by fifth seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri with a 21-19, 21-15 win.
Lakshya, the 2021 World Championship bronze-medallist, who had made it to the Hong Kong Open final but has gone without a title this year, had a tough time beating Ayush in the opening game, with the higher-ranked Indian trailing 6-9.
However, Lakshya fought his way back to take an 11-10 lead at the break. Following a seesaw battle, the Almora shuttler managed a 19-17 advantage.
However, Ayush was the first one to take a game point before squandering it as Lakshya finally closed out the opener after a few tense moments.
The second game of the 53-minute contest turned out to be a one-sided one with Lakshya taking an early 6-1 lead, which swelled to 15-7 in no time as Ayush’s challenge wilted.
Lakshya is the only Indian remaining in men’s singles after senior pros Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth had made early exits on Thursday.
