Sydney, Nov 21 (NationPress) Lakshya Sen triumphed over a tenacious Ayush Shetty in straight games, securing his place in the men’s singles semifinals at the Australian Open Super 500 held at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday.

The seventh seed, who had previously defeated the 20-year-old at the same stage during the Hong Kong Open earlier this year, emerged victorious with scores of 23–21 and 21–11, setting up a semifinal clash with second seed Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei.

World No. 9 Chou, who earned a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games, managed to overcome Farhan Alwi in a tough match that lasted for 1 hour and 23 minutes, finishing with scores of 13–21, 23–21, and 21–16. Alwi had previously stunned Indian veteran HS Prannoy in the round of 16.

At 26, Sen, who reached the finals at the Hong Kong Open earlier this season but is yet to claim his first title of the year, faced significant challenge from Shetty in the opening game. After trailing 6–9, Sen rallied to score four consecutive points from 9–10, taking a lead of 13–10. Shetty, the champion of the US Open Super 300, continued to fight back in a fluctuating first game, even leveling at 21–21 before Sen clinched the game.

The second game of the 53-minute match was more decisive, as Sen quickly took a 6–1 lead and extended it to 15–7 as Shetty's challenge diminished. Following this match, Sen stands as India's sole representative after early departures of Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles on Thursday.

In men's doubles, the top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the quarterfinals with a comfortable win over Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun from Chinese Taipei but were defeated by the fifth seeds, Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri, with scores of 19-21 and 15-21, leading to their exit from the tournament.