Macau, Aug 1 (NationPress) The second-seeded Lakshya Sen has successfully moved into the BWF Macau Open semifinals by defeating Zhu Xuan Chen from China with scores of 21-14, 18-21, and 21-14 at the East Asian Games Dome this Friday.

This marks Lakshya's first appearance in the semifinals across 10 BWF tour events since his victory at the Syed Modi International late last year. In the next round, he will face fifth seed Alwi Farhan from Indonesia for a chance to compete in the finals.

Lakshya started the match strongly, building a 6-point lead by the first mid-game interval and confidently winning the first game 21-14. After the sides changed, the Indian player maintained a five-point advantage, but the Chinese competitor fought back, leveling the score at 18-18 before taking the game.

However, Lakshya rebounded in the deciding game, establishing a lead and ultimately sealing the match with a score of 21-14.

In the quarterfinals, Lakshya had previously secured his spot following a hard-fought battle on Thursday.

In another exciting development, his compatriot Tharun Mannepalli also reached the semifinals by defeating Hu Zhe An from China with scores of 21-12, 13-21, 21-18. Earlier, he pulled off a significant upset by overcoming top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu from Hong Kong.

Later today, the world No. 9 men's doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will compete against the Malaysian pair Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal. Satwik and Chirag had demonstrated tremendous resilience by coming back from a game down to defeat Japan’s Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi in the quarterfinals.

On the women’s side, India’s campaign at the Macau Open concluded on Thursday when the last remaining player, Rakshitha Ramraj, faced defeat against the second seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan from Thailand with scores of 14-21, 21-10, 21-11.