Almere (The Netherlands), Oct 12:
Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles final with a straight-game win over Felix Burestedt of Sweden at the Dutch Open Super 100 tournament here today.
The 18-year-old Indian, who had clinched the Belgian Open last month, beat Felix 21-12 21-9 in a lop-sided semifinal contest that lasted 33 minutes.
Lakshya had earlier sailed into the men’s singles semifinals with a 21-9 21-16 win over compatriot B M Rahul Bharadwaj on Friday night.
Lakshya, who had won the Asian Junior champion, a silver at Youth Olympic Games and a bronze medal at World Junior Championships last year, will now take on Yusuke Onodera of Japan in the summit clash on Sunday.
In the semifinal, it was neck-and-neck between Lakshya and Felix till the first six points before the Indian pocketed five straight points to surge ahead 11-6.
Felix clawed his way back to reduce the margin to 10-12 before Lakshya upped his game to pocket the first game.
The second game was a one-sided contest as Lakshya raced to an 8-0 lead. Felix managed to secure nine points but Lakshya kept his nose ahead to seal the contest.
Ealier in the quarterfinals against Bharadwaj, Lakshya dished out a dominating game, moving to a 6-0 lead early on and then jumped to 11-3 at the interval.(PTI)
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