Lakshya Sen brushes aside Li Shi Feng to reach All England semi-final | Badminton News – The Times of India

Lakshya Sen stormed into the semi-finals of the All England Championship with a 21-13, 21-16 victory over former champion Li Shi Feng in Birmingham on Friday.This is Lakshya’s third semi-final appearance at the Super 1000 event. The Indian had earlier finished second in the 2022 edition.The Almora shuttle was in full swing against Li in both matches.

The Chinese player, who suffered a serious ankle injury during the World Tour Finals in December, was not at his best and struggled to keep pace with the Indian.Lakshya opened a five-point lead (11-5) at the break in the first game and then did well to protect the cushion.After the break, Li reduced the deficit to 12-9, but Lakshya refused to buckle under pressure. He mixed powerful strikes with sharp retrieves. At 15-12 the two were involved in a 65-shot rally, which Li won. But just as the momentum seemed to shift, Lakshya responded with a six-point burst to end the first game.In the second game, Li started strong with a 3-1 lead before Lakshya scored five straight points. Although the Indian only had a slim one-point lead at half-time (11-10), he dominated the second half as Li struggled to keep up.Lakshya will face the winner of the quarter-final between Japan’s Koki Watanabe and Canada’s Victor Lai in the semi-finals.From the bottom half of the draw, Lin Chun-Yi from Chinese Taipei and Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand also advanced to the semi-finals.