All England Open 2022: Lakshya Sen stuns champion Lee to enter final, 5th Indian to achieve the feat

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London, March 19: On a remarkable day for Indian badminton, rising star Lakshya Sen entered the final of the All England Open 2022 on Saturday (March 19).

In the semifinal, Lakshya Sen defeated defending champion and sixth seed Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19.

Lakshya is the fourth Indian male badminton player to reach the All England final after Prakash Nath (1947, runner-up) Prakash Padukone in 1980 (winner) and 1981 (runner-up) and Pullela Gopichand in 2001 (winner).

Saina Nehwal had reached the All England final in 2015.

The Almora born Lakshya Sen is enjoying a decent run of form as he bagged a bronze medal in World Championship, secured his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January and then claimed a runners-up finish at the German Open.

The unseeded Indian had defeated the World No 3 Anders Antonsen by 21-16, 21-18 in the earlier round.

In women's doubles, the Indian pair of P Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly defeated World No 2 and World Championship silver medallist pair of Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan of South Korea 14-21, 22-20, 21-15 in a match that lasted for one hour and seven minutes to enter the semi-final.

The 19-year-old P Gayatri Gopichand and the 18-year-old Treesa Jolly lost the opening game and in the second game saved two match points to win it 22-20 and then won the third game to win the match in three games.

In men's doubles, the fifth-seeded Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failed to make it to the semi-final losing 22-24 17-21 to Indonesian top seed Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in 47 minutes.