India Open badminton: Lakshya Sen beats world champion in singles final; Chirag-Satwik bag doubles title
Lakshya Sen beat reigning world champion Kean Yew Loh in the final while Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy upstaged former three-time world champions.
India’s Lakshya Sen and the pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won the men’s singles and doubles titles, respectively, at the India Open 2022 on Sunday.
While Lakshya Sen defeated reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 24-22, 21-17 in 54 minutes, Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy upstaged Indonesia’s three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 26-24 in 43 minutes to clinch their maiden India Open title.
Lakshya Sen went in the first interval leading Kean Yew Loh 11-8. The Indian held the momentum to extend his lead to 16-9. However, Loh pulled the contest back but gave away two game points to lose the first game.
Lakshya Sen continued to play attacking shots in the second game and squeezed out a couple of unforced errors from the world champion to lead 11-9 at the break. The 20-year-old from Almora kept his cool to pocket the game and the title.
With this win, Lakshya Sen became the third Indian to win the men's singles India Open title after Prakash Padukone in 1981 and Kidambi Srikanth in 2015.
Lakshya Sen had seen off Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong in the semis after getting better of experienced compatriot HS Prannoy in the quarters in a similar fashion.
The world No. 10 duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, meanwhile, won the first game convincingly but had to save five game points in the second to overcome the top seeds.
This was Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s second BWF World Tour Super 500 title after the Thailand Open triumph in 2019.
The India Open 2022 was severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak with several top players, including world championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth pulling out in the middle of the tournament.
The India Open 2022 was the first BWF tournament of the year. It will be followed by the Syed Modi International Super 300 from January 18 to 23 and the Odisha Open Super 100 from January 25 to 30.