Lakshya Sen enters semifinals of All England Championships

Birmingham: World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles semifinals of the All England Championships after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China gave a walkover here on Friday.

The 20-year-old from Almora, who had secured his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January and then claimed a runners-up finish at the German Open last week, will face the winner of the match between Malaysia’s sixth seed Lee Zii Jia and Japan’s second seed Kento Momota in the last four round.

Fifth-seeded Indian pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, failed to cross the quarterfinal hurdle losing 22-24 17-21 to Indonesian top seed Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in 47 minutes.

Sen had stunned world No 3 and two-time medallist at World Championships Anders Antonsen of Denmark 21-16 21-18 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals.

The Indian had defeated world no 1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark on his way to his maiden Super 300 final last week.