German Open: Lakshya Sen stuns world No.1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen to enter final

Bengaluru, March 13: India's promising shuttler Lakshya Sen stunned the top-ranked Viktor Axelsen 21-13, 12-21, 22-20 to storm into the final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) sanctioned German Open Super 300.

The 20-year-old, who had claimed his maiden Super 500 title at the India Open in January, continued his rich vein of form as he sent the Olympic champion and top-seed Axelsen packing in the semifinal that lasted one hour and 10 minutes.

It was a memorable performance from the world No. 12 Indian as he recorded his first win over his highly-fancied rival who has a 4-0 head-to-head record before Saturday's (March 12) match.

In the final on Sunday, Sen will face Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn who beat Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 21-13, 21-12 in the other last-four encounter.

Sen was ahead throughout the first game that lasted 21 minutes. He did not give the Dane any chance to get ahead of him. Axelsen found it difficult to match Sen's pace in the first game.

Sen opened up with a 4-1 lead and then extended it to 9-4. But Axelsen narrowed it down to 7-9 before Sen grabbed four consecutive points to make it 13-7. Sen's attacking game paid dividends as he took five consecutive points to lead 18-10 before clinching the first game with ease.

Axelsen made a comeback in the second game to make it one all and take the match to the decider. He was trailing 3-8 early on but used his height and reach to good effect to take five consecutive points and level the score at 8-8 before zooming ahead.

From there on, Sen lost way and Axelsen pocketed the second game without any fuss.

The two players left their best for the last as they fought tooth and nail in the dramatic deciding game. It turned out to be a battle of nerves as rallies got longer with both fighting for each point. From 2-2, it was 4-4 and then 6-6 before Axelsen zoomed ahead 15-8.

But the young Indian fought his way back in a remarkable fashion to close the gap to 15-17 and then to 17-19. He levelled the score 19-19 and then 20-20 before sealing the match with two consecutive points.

Earlier in the quarterfinals, Sen had seen off fellow Indian and former top 10 player HS Prannoy 21-15, 21-16 while Axelsen defeated India's Kidambi Srikanth in straight games 21-10, 23-21 in a match that lasted for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, in men's doubles the pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud had bowed out after straight games 11-21, 21-23 loss to Chinese pair of He Jiting and Zhou Haodong.

Olympics medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal had also crashed out of the women's singles competition following second-round losses. The seventh seeded Sindhu, a 2019 World Champion and two-time Olympic medallist, however, suffered a shock 14-21 21-15 14-21 loss against China's Zhang Yi Man in 55 minutes in the women's singles second round.

London Games bronze winner Saina, who has been struggling with fitness issues, also proved no match against eighth seeded Thai Ratchanok Intanon, going down 10-21 15-21 in a lop-sided contest.

(With PTI inputs)