Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen raged into the men's singles final with a straight-game win over Felix Burestedt of Sweden at the Dutch Open Super 100 competition on Saturday (October 12).
The 18-year-old Indian, who had clinched the Belgian Open a month ago, beat Felix 21-12, 21-9 out of a hack sided semifinal round challenge that endured 33 minutes. Lakshya had before cruised into the men's singles semifinal rounds with a 21-9, 21-16 win over comrade B M Rahul Bharadwaj on Friday night.
Lakshya, who had won the Asian Junior victor, a silver at Youth Olympic Games and a bronze medal at World Junior Championships a year ago, will presently take on Yusuke Onodera of Japan in the summit conflict on Sunday (October 13).
In the semifinal, it was neck-and-neck among Lakshya and Felix till the initial six points before the Indian took five straight points to surge ahead 11-6. Felix clawed his way back to decrease the edge to 10-12 preceding Lakshya increased his game to take the first game.
The second game was an uneven challenge as Lakshya hustled to an 8-0 lead. Felix figured out how to verify nine points yet Lakshya kept his nose ahead to seal the challenge. Earlier 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.
He proceeded with his walk ahead, rolling out six straight indicates at 13-8 move to 18-8 and before long stashed the game easily. In the second game, Bharadwaj opened up a 4-2 lead for a short period however Lakshya returned to reverse the situation and surged to 11-6 at the break.
Bharadwaj attempted to make a comeback yet Lakshya kept his nose ahead to eventually shut the door on his opponent.
