Kolkata: Lakshya Sen, the 20-year-old bronze medallist in World Championships in December, showed why he is regarded as the next big thing in Indian men’s badminton. Coming back from a set down, the youngster showed nerves of steel to hold off Malaysia’s NG Tze Yong 19-21, 21-16, 21-12 in one hour seven minutes in the semi-final of Yonex India Open in New Delhi.
In what would be the first Super 500 final of his promising career, third seed Lakshya will be taking on the reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore on Sunday. The youngster, born in Almora of Uttar Pradesh, is unfazed at the prospect of taking on the world champion as he can fall back on an impressive head-to-head 2-2 record against him.
‘‘Both of us are playing well at the moment, so it should be a good match,’’ Lakshya told Badminton Association of India (BAI) media after his semi-final win.
‘‘It’s a good feeling to make the final at home. There were not a lot of crowd support because of the restrictions, but I still fed on it during the semi-final today. It was a pretty close first game against Yong today, I committed a few errors and lost the game but kept kept my cool to come back in the next two games,’’ he ad