Canada Open: Sindhu, Sen sail into semifinals

Calgary, Canada: Indian badminton players PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen sailed into the semifinals of Canada Open 2023 BWF Super 500 event after registering contrasting wins in their respective women’s and men’s singles quarterfinals, here.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist and a former world champion, defeated China’s world No. 45 Gao Fang Jie 21-13, 21-7 in the quarterfinals and entered her third semifinal of the year on Friday night. The ace Indian shuttler made it to the final of the Spain Masters BWF Super 500 tournament in April but is yet to win a title this year. Sindhu will be up against her rival and reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinals.

World No. 15 Sindhu leads world No. 1 Yamaguchi 14-10 in head-to-head but was defeated by the Japanese shuttler in the first round of the Singapore Open last month. On the other hand, world No. 19 Lakshya Sen registered a 21-8, 17-21, 21-10 win over Belgium’s world No. 62 Julien Carraggi to make his second semifinal of 2023. Sen, the reigning men’s singles Commonwealth Games champion, will face world No.11 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan for a place in the final. Lakshya and Kenta have faced each other twice and have won one match each.

The 21-year-old Sen has played in 12 tournaments this year but is yet to play in the final.