Badminton
Rising sensation Lakshya Sen reaches the final of 2019 Scottish Open
Rising next-generation shuttler Lakshya Sen continued his dream run at the ongoing 2019 Scottish Open Badminton Championship in Glasgow as he reached the finals after defeating Christo Popov in a nail-biting three-game thriller 9-21, 21-8, 22-20 in the semifinals on Saturday.
Lakshya Sen had to dig deep after losing the first game 9-21 without troubling the French sensation. However, the 18-year-old was back in the match as he was all over Popov in the second game and taking the match to go through the final game.
There was nothing to choose between the two in the third game but it was the 17-year-old French who blinked first as Sen edged him after saving a match point and secured a place in the finals with 22-20 win in the final game.
With his victory, Sen will enter the Top 40 in the world rankings and reach a career-high ranking. He will also get close to get a direct qualification in the top grade 2 events.
Lakshya Sen will next face Ygor Coelho in the finals of the Scottish International Challenge at 8 pm IST and will aim to grab his 4th title in 3 months.
Having received the top seeding at the International Challenge tournament, Lakshya Sen started off his campaign against Austria’s World No. 98 Luka Wraber. Sen then scored a brilliant win over his compatriot Kiran George 21-17, 21-19 to reach the quarterfinals. In the last 8, he cinched another comprehensive victory over the 6th seed Brian Yang 21-12, 21-15 before getting the better of Christo Popov in the semifinals.
Lakshya Sen can become the first Indian to win the Scottish Open title since 2012 when Anand Pawar secured the gold medal after defeating Kazumasa Sakai in the finals in a three-game thriller.