India’s Lakshya Sen beat compatriot Ayush Shetty to advance into the men’s singles semi-finals at the Hong Kong Open 2025 badminton tournament on Friday.
World No. 20 Lakshya Sen beat Ayush Shetty, 31st in the men’s singles badminton rankings, 21-16, 17-21, 21-13 in an hour and six minutes at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
The first game saw Lakshya lead 11-10 at the interval before shifting gears to clinch the opener.
Ayush Shetty, who is the only Indian to win a BWF Tour title this year, having won the US Open, trailed 15-11 in the second game but fought back by winning 10 of the next 12 points to force a third game.
In the decider, Ayush Shetty stayed close with Lakshya early on but lost steam after the interval as the Paris 2024 semi-finalist closed out the match to move into the semi-finals of the BWF Super 500 tournament.
The Hong Kong Open marks the second time that Lakshya has reached the semi-finals of a badminton tournament this year. He had also made it to the semi-finals of the Macau Open in August.
Meanwhile, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty battled their way into the men’s doubles semi-finals after a hard-fought 21-14, 20-22, 21-16 win over Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Yap Roy King.
After narrowly trailing 11–10 at the first interval, the eighth-seeded Indian pair raised their tempo after the break and conceded just three more points before pocketing the opener.
The second game went down to the wire with the Indian badminton players saving four game points before losing the tie-break, pushing the match into a decider.
In the final game, Satwik-Chirag took control of proceedings from the outset, leading 11-6 at the interval before hammering home their advantage to enter the semi-finals.
This was Satwik-Chirag’s second win in as many matches against the Malaysians. Their run to the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open also marks the sixth different tournament where the Indian duo have made it to the final-four on the BWF World Tour this year.
However, they have failed to make it beyond the semis in any of the previous five tournaments. Satwik-Chirag will face Chinese Taipei’s Lin Bing-wei and Chen Cheng Kuan in the semis for a shot at qualifying for their first final of 2025.