US Open 2023: Lakshya Sen's three-game loss in semifinals end India's challenge

The WR-12 Indian did beat Li Shi Feng in the Canada Open final last weekend.

India's top ranked shuttler Lakshya Sen went down in three games (17-21, 24-22, 17-21) against second seed Li Shi Feng in the semi-finals of US Open 2023. The Chinese shuttler, who lost to Sen in the Canada Open finals last week, got his revenge this time at the US Open and in the process reached his second successive final in the American leg of BWF World tour.

Going into the encounter, Lakshya Sen was 5-2 ahead in the h2h records and had a slight edge over Feng. The opening game started with high intensity as both shuttlers exchanged good rallies but a couple of loose shots from the Indian allowed Feng to get away with the first game, which he won 21-17. Lakshya then came back strongly in the second and had a two-points advantage at 19-17 in the latter half of the second game.

Li Shi Feng, however, made a comeback at 22-21 and had a match point in his favour. Lakshya was smart to evade the threat of saving a match point and also took the match to the decider with a 24-22 win. In the deciding game, Lakshya, 21, was trailing by five points at the mid-game interval and a comeback looked pretty tough.

The Chinese continued to surge ahead and secured six points lead at 14-8, but somehow Lakshya managed to crawl back and reduced the deficit to just two points at 15-17. The path since wasn't fruitful as Feng secured the game and the match with another 17-21 win.

Next up, top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn is set to clash with second seed Li Shi Feng in the finals of men' singles. Another Chinese player Gao Fang Jie created a major upset by defeating top seed Ratchanok Intanon in women's singles and will play sixth seed Supanida Katethong.

India's performance on day 5 of US Open 2023

Men's Singles (Semi-finals)

Lakshya Sen lost to Li Shi Feng (17-21, 24-22, 17-21)