India’s ace shuttler HS Prannoy lost his quarter-final clash to World No. 1 shuttler Viktor Axelsen in the ongoing Japan Open 2023 on Friday. Prannoy won the first game in a closely fought encounter by 21-19. But the Danish shuttler bounced back to win the final two games and seal his place in the semi-finals. Prannoy showed some fight during the second game to book his place in the semi-final. He initially led the second game but Axelsen came back to keep the contest alive by 21-18.
The final game was pure domination from the World No. 1 as he cruised through the entire game, hardly giving the Indian shuttler a chance to make a comeback. HS Prannoy failed to reach double digits as Axelsen won the game by 21-8.
Also Read: Lakshya Sen enters semifinal, Prannoy, Chirag-Satwik bow out of Japan Open 2023
Earlier in the day, the 2022 Commonwealth Champion Lakshya Sen registered a straight-set 21-15 21-19 victory over Watanabe to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.
Lakshya Sen, who won the Canada Open Super 500 earlier this month, jumped out to a 5-3 lead early on before closing to 11-7 at the break. The Indian had little trouble manoeuvring the Japanese and quickly sealed the opening game with two cross-court returns on both sides of the court.
Watanabe tried to infuse some energy into the rallies after switching sides, but Lakshya Sen looked in command and moved to 3-2 with a stunning cross court drop. A 42-shot rally finished with Sen’s backhand falling into the net, giving Watanabe a 5-3 lead.
Sen, who trailed 7-14, staged a comeback, pulling his opponent to the net and making good use of drop shots. With a cross-court smash, he quickly turned the tables at 18-17. Sen secured one match point with two returns on his opponent’s backhand before producing another crisp return at the backhand line to clinch the match against his Japanese opponent.
Meanwhile, the Indian in-form men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failed to bring their ‘A’ game into the match, falling 15-21 25-23 16-21 to Olympic winners Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei.
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