India’s top badminton player, Lakshya Sen, maintained his excellent momentum on Friday, storming into the men’s singles semifinals of the Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 tournament. It was a mixed day for India, however, as experienced shuttler Kidambi Srikanth was eliminated from the tournament after a straight-games defeat in his quarterfinal match.
Lakshya Sen’s Dominance and Hopes for the World Tour Finals
Ranked 13th in the world and seeded eighth in the tournament, Lakshya Sen adopted an aggressive approach from the outset against local contender Yushi Tanaka of Japan. In a quarterfinal clash that lasted just 40 minutes, Lakshya utilized his precise smashes and superior court coverage to comfortably defeat Tanaka 21-16, 21-15.
This victory is highly significant for Lakshya, who recently won the Hylo Open title. He currently holds the 12th position in the BWF World Tour rankings with 64,980 points. To qualify for the ‘BWF World Tour Finals’—the prestigious season-ending tournament to be held in China—he needs to break into the top eight, and this win marks a major step toward achieving that goal.
A Tough Challenge for Lakshya in the Semifinals
To secure a spot in the final, Lakshya will face the sixth-seeded Indonesian rising star, Alwi Farhan. For Lakshya, the match against the world number 10 will also be an opportunity to settle the score, as he has faced defeat in both of their previous encounters.
Lack of Consistency Hinders Srikanth Again
Meanwhile, world No. 31 Kidambi Srikanth once again failed to maintain consistency in his performance. Facing Japan’s world No. 15 Koki Watanabe, Srikanth put up a tough fight in the opening game and came very close to winning it, but ultimately faltered, losing the game 22-24. In the second game, despite building a solid lead, he could not capitalize on it and ended up losing 15-21, resulting in his exit.
This defeat is particularly disappointing given that just a day earlier (on Thursday), Srikanth had delivered an impressive performance to pull off an upset against Japan’s world No. 8 and two-time World Championship silver medalist, Kodai Naraoka, but he was unable to carry that momentum into his match against Watanabe.