Japan Open Highlights: – Lakshya Sen’s campaign at the Japan Open 2023 has come to an end. The unseeded Indian suffered a 15-21, 21-13, 16-21 defeat against fifth seed Jonatan Christie in the semifinal of the Super 750 tournament on Saturday, 29th July. With the loss, Lakshya Sen has lost his second successive semifinal contest in the BWF Tour following the US Open two weeks ago. Christie meanwhile will face either World No.1 Viktor Axelsen or Kodai Naraoka in the final on Sunday.
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Lakshya started the game with a 3-1 lead. Christie soon hit a couple of smashes and levelled the scores 4-4. From then on both the players started trading points. After the scores were 9-9, an error from Christie followed. Lakshya soon entered the interval with a 11-9 lead after a smash.
Christie however clawed his way back into the contest after the interval. With five successive points, the Indonesian went up 16-12. Christie continued to attack and with a body smash, he had five game points and a backhand smash followed that helped him seal the first game 21-15 in 20 minutes.
After a lengthy conversation with the coach, Lakshya started the second game with plenty of aggression, a down-the-line smash early in the rally giving him a 3-1 lead once more – which became 8-4 with a well-judged smash ending a series of fast, aggressive rallies and Christie making a couple of errors as well. Lakshya was forcing the issue with clever angles, and his sixth straight point came via another unreturnable smash down the line, as he went 11-4 ahead into the break.
Lakshya Sen began to attack early in the second game. From 5-4, he took six straight points and went into the interval with a seven-point advantage. Christie clawed his way back with three straight points after the interval, reducing the defict to three points. However Lakshya continued to dominate and won the game 21-13 in 22 minutes.
It was a very close battle in the third game. Lakshya however hit wide to trail behind 6-8. Christie soon grabbed the momentum and with a smash entered the interval with a four-point lead. Christie continued to attack after the change of ends. He went on to maitain his lead and closed out the match 21-15 13-21 21-16 in 68 minutes.
