Lakshya Sen stuns world champion, wins India Open | Badminton News – Times of India

It turned out to be a doubly delightful Sunday for Indians at the India Open badminton in New Delhi. Lakshya Sen caused the biggest upset of his career when he stunned world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 24-22, 21-17 to win the men’s singles title at the Super-500 badminton tournament. Also, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty shocked world champions Mohd Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia to claim their first India Open crown with a 21-16, 26-24 victory.
Lakshya (20), who announced his arrival on the big stage with a bronze at the World Championships in Spain recently, proved his performance there was no a flash in the pan as he dominated Loh.
The Almora boy, ranked 17 in the world, had nearly missed the tournament due to a false Covid test.

Lakshya was off the blocks in a flash in the summit calsh and went into the break up 11-8 in the first game. Controlling the rallies with effortless ease, Lakshya raced ahead to 16-9. However, Loh found his rthym and reduced the margin to 14-19.
From 14-19, Loh secured six straight points to move ahead at 20-19. Just when it looked like Lakshya would crumble under pressure, the youngster dug deep and displayed nerves of steel to save two game points before clinching the first game.

In the second game, Lakshya came out guns blazing with some ferocious cross-court smashes, putting Loh in a spot of bother. He made Loh move all over the court and gave no time for his opponent to settle down.
Surprised by the all-out attack by the Indian, Loh began making mistakes and lost rhythm. The Indian had a two-point advantage at the break and was up 16-10 before Loh succeeded in reducing the lead to 16-17. But at 19-17, Lakshya scored perhaps the two biggest points of his career to notch up a memorable victory.

Lakshya celebrated the win by flinging his racquet into the air and raising his arms in delight.
“I’m extremely happy with the victory,” said Lakshya. “This is the biggest World Tour tournament that I have managed to win. Towards the closing stages, I was a bit nervous and anxious to finish off the game because it is a big tournament for me,” Lakshya added.
It was a morale-boosting victory for Chirag-Satwik too. Considered as one of the best in the world, their rise to the top was affected by injuries and Covid.

“It was a dream match for us, we still can’t believe it. We had a clear plan and we wanted to implement that. I feel we played one of our best matches ever. We stayed calm. I could see they were under pressure,” Satwik said.
His partner Chirag also rated this as one of their best wins.

“We usually don’t play this kind of a game. It is new for us and it is working well. It shows that we can get points and win matches while defending,” Chirag said.
In an all-Thailand final, Busanan Ongbamrungphan defeated Supanida Katethong 22-20, 19-21, 21-13 to win the women’s singles title.