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Star shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles last of the Australian Open Super 500 with a gritty three-game triumph implicit satellite No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, successful Sydney connected Saturday (November 22, 2025).
Lakshya, a 2021 World Championships bronze-medallist, showed immense intelligence toughness to retrieve from an opening-game setback and outlast the 2nd effect 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 successful an 86-minute semifinal.
The 24-year-old, who reached the Hong Kong Open last earlier this twelvemonth but is yet to triumph a rubric this season, volition look either Japan’s Yushi Tanaka oregon Chinese Taipei’s 5th effect Lin Chun-Yi successful Sunday’s (November 23, 2025) acme clash.
Lakshya looked patchy aboriginal on, portion Chen was acold much precise with his changeable enactment and execution, which allowed the Taiwanese to predominate the rallies. His dependable play earned him a 11-6 pb astatine mid-game interval.
Chen’s assertive backcourt onslaught paid disconnected arsenic helium raced to 14-7. Lakshya concisely halted the tally with a large smash to the heavy corner, but Chen instantly won backmost the service with a crisp cross-court winner. Lakshya kept feeding shuttles into Chen’s hitting zone, and the Taiwanese repeatedly unleashed his powerfulness smashes.
A nett mistake from Lakshya made it 19-13 earlier Chen, who had committed a fewer brushed mistakes, steadied himself again. At 19-15, the 2 played a 44-shot rally that ended with Chen delivering a sidesplitting stroke to gain 5 crippled points. Lakshya saved two, but past drove 1 into the nett to concede the opener.
After the alteration of ends, some players took clip to adjust, trading errors arsenic the people moved from 2-2 to 4-4. Chen’s pinpoint attacks began clicking again arsenic helium pulled up 7-4. But Lakshya fought backmost superbly, levelling astatine 9-9 with Chen’s defence opening to fray. The Taiwanese’s aggression softened and his accuracy dipped arsenic Lakshya applied unit to instrumentality an 11-9 pb with a good nett shot.
Chen clawed backmost to 12-all aft Lakshya pushed a smash wide. At 14-13, Lakshya showcased his antiaircraft grit with a bid of exceptional saves earlier finishing the constituent with a smash.
Chen won different attacking speech and moved to 16-17 aft Lakshya suffered an unfortunate nett chord. The Taiwanese made it 17-all with a smash astir the Lakshya’s hips and past edged up erstwhile Lakshya deed the net.
Lakshya sent 1 ballooning agelong and followed it with different mis-hit to manus Chen 2 lucifer points.
But helium responded with a deep-corner winner, and Chen past deed the portion to marque it 20-20. A choky nett duel saw Chen assertion his 3rd lucifer point, lone to nonstop the adjacent shuttle agelong arsenic the scores were levelled again.
Lakshya earned a crippled constituent with a smash that clipped the line. Chen saved it with a smash of his own, but Lakshya grabbed a 2nd accidental with different superb victor and roared backmost into the lucifer erstwhile Chen went long.
The quality successful property seemed to travel into play arsenic a 24-year-old Lakshya looked much fresher than the 35-year-old Chen, whose question grew laboured, and errors mounted successful the decider.
Lakshya raced to a 6-1 pb arsenic Chen struggled for precision. Lakshya’s magnitude improved, his nett crippled turned sharper, and helium work Chen acold better.
Chen’s authority, which helium had shown successful the opening game, dissipated arsenic Lakshya extended his pb to 10-5. He entered the interval 11-6 aft Chen went agelong again.
Sen extended it to 14-7 ahead. A work mistake from Chen pushed Lakshya to 17-9, and a crisp cross-court smash earned him 8 lucifer points. Chen saved 4 but yet netted the shuttle, arsenic Lakshya sealed an awesome comeback victory.
