US Open: Lakshya Sen out of badminton tournament, lost to Feng in semi-finals

Council Bluffs. India’s star player Lakshya Sen suffered a hard-fought loss to All England champion Li Shi Feng of China in the men’s singles semi-finals of the US Open badminton tournament. Commonwealth Games gold medalist and third seed Sen here lost 17-21 24-22 17-21 to second seed Feng. This match of BWF Super 300 tournament played on Saturday night lasted for one hour and 16 minutes. It was a close contest between world number seven Feng and world number 12 Sen.In the opening game, both the players were tied till 17 points but after the Chinese player showed aggressive attitude while the Indian player made some mistakes.

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World Championship bronze medalist Sen, however, made a strong comeback in the second game. Like the first game, the second game also saw a tough fight. Both the players had long rallies and were tied till 22 points. Lakshya then scored two consecutive points to level the match. The third and deciding game was a repeat of the first game. Feng took an early lead and led 11-8 at the interval. Sen, however, did not give up and kept himself in the contest till 17 points. The Chinese players then built up the pressure and sealed the match. Sen has a 5-2 win-loss record against Feng. He won his second BWF Super 500 title last week by defeating the Chinese player 21-18, 22-20 in the Canada Open.