6 months ago
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A accelerated and fluent Lakshya Sen ended a hard agelong connected the planetary circuit by clinching his archetypal rubric of the season, defeating Japan’s Yushi Tanaka successful the men’s singles last of the $475,000 Australian Open Super 500 successful Sydney connected Sunday (November 23, 2025).
The 24-year-old from Almora, who had endured a pugnacious signifier aft finishing 4th astatine the Paris Olympics, capped a resurgent week with a commanding performance, outplaying the 26-year-old Tanaka 21-15 21-11 successful 38 minutes and celebrated the triumph by putting his fingers successful his ears.
Lakshya, a 2021 World Championships bronze-medallist, had past won a Super 300 rubric astatine the Syed Modi International successful Lucknow successful 2024. However, a top-tier crown had eluded him since his triumph astatine the Canada Open that aforesaid year, though helium came adjacent astatine the Hong Kong Super 500 successful September erstwhile helium finished runner-up.
Facing satellite No. 26 Tanaka, victor of 2 Super 300 titles this twelvemonth astatine the Orléans Masters and the US Open, Lakshya displayed crisp control, crisp placement and cleanable execution to wrapper up the contention without dropping a game.
With this victory, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, became lone the 2nd Indian to triumph a BWF World Tour rubric this season, pursuing Ayush Shetty’s maiden Super 300 triumph astatine the US Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had reached the finals astatine the Hong Kong and China Masters, portion Kidambi Srikanth besides logged a runner-up decorativeness astatine the Malaysia Masters earlier successful the year.
Lakshya made a assured start, opening up a 6-3 pb arsenic Tanaka committed a flurry of errors -- hitting into the net, going wide and overcooking his lifts. A 35-shot rally ended with the Japanese shuttler again uncovering the net, earlier a fortunate nett cord yet broke Lakshya’s tally of points.
Two crisp cross-court smashes connected either flank had Lakshya connected the level arsenic Tanaka closed the spread to 7-9, but the Indian carried a three-point cushion into the mid-game interval aft the Japanese sprayed different changeable into the net.
Chants of “Lakshya! Lakshya!” rang astir the arena during the mid-game intervals, with a sizeable Indian assemblage turning up to enactment him.
The Indian tightened his grip thereafter, dominating the nett exchanges and keeping the shuttle level and deep, denying Tanaka the magnitude helium needed to unleash his whipping smashes arsenic helium moved up 13-9.
Tanaka responded with a almighty smash, followed by a agelong mistake from Lakshya and a crisp nett changeable to marque it 12-13. But Lakshya again pulled away, opening up a four-point pb astatine 17-13 with a backhand smash and different fierce cross-court winner.
Tanaka tried to enactment successful the hunt but 2 agelong errors handed Lakshya 5 crippled points. The Indian converted instantly arsenic Tanaka drove different shuttle into the net.
The 2nd crippled turned into a one-sided matter arsenic Lakshya kept up the intensity, continuing to play fast, level returns adjacent arsenic Tanaka tried stretching him with his trademark whipping smashes but those were acold excessively fewer to airs immoderate challenge.
The Japanese overdid his onslaught and his inconsistency overshadowed his moments of brilliance arsenic Lakshya moved up 8-4.
A level cross-court thrust pushed Lakshya to 10-5, and helium secured a six-point pb astatine the interval with different thunderous smash.
Lakshya showed fantabulous backline judgement arsenic Tanaka repeatedly floated the shuttle long. After winning a choky nett duel, the Indian extended the pb to 13-6. Tanaka struggled to withstand Lakshya’s power, continuing to deed wide and into the nett arsenic the pb swelled to 17-8.
Lakshya past hammered a barrage of smashes to determination to 19-8 and soon earned 10 lucifer points with different good changeable adjacent the net. He squandered 1 with a nett mistake but sealed the rubric with a crisp cross-court return.
