Lakshya Sen upset fourth seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-17, 21-14 to reach his first final of the year at the Canada Open BWF Super-500 tournament.
PV Sindhu's issues related to her form against top players continued. On Sunday at Calgary, she failed to get past Akane Yamaguchi. The Japanese top seed trounced Sindhu in straight games 21-14, 21-15. After dominating the Indian in the first game, Yamaguchi fought back from a 9-13 deficit in the second game to win the match.
The day belonged to Lakshya, who outclassed the higher ranked Nishimoto. This is the first final appearance for Lakshya after 15 months.
The last time he reached the final was in All England in March 2022. Thereafter, health issues slowed down his pace and his ranking dropped to world No. 25 from No. 6. Lakshya did not have a good start in the final as Nishimoto opened with a 4-0 lead. But once he gained control over the shuttle he looked a completely different player. He caught up with Nishimoto at 8-8 and from 11-11 he scored five straight points to widen the gap over his opponent with exemplary netplay.
"It was a pretty bad start, I couldn't control the shuttle well. The moment I got the rhythm at the net I got better. Near-perfect netplay was the key and we were both trying to do that," Lakshya told BWF after the victory.
Once he started collecting points at the net, Lakshya dominated his opponent. "Eventually I took control at the net, the smashes were also working. Overall, good tactical game I played and I am happy with my performance," Lakshya said.
Incidentally, this is Lakshya's second appearance in the final of a BWF Super-500 event.
He will now take on reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of China, who downed Kodai Naraoka of Japan in straight games 21-8, 21-11.
Lakshya enjoys a 4-2 career record against Li and defeated him in the second round of Thailand Open last month.
