PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen enter the semi-finals of the Canada Open

Indian badminton stars PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen’s were of very contrasting natures but they both have made it to the semis of the Canada Open.

Commonwealth Games champion PV Sindhu and rising star Lakshya Sen secured wins of polar opposite natures but both have managed to secure their progress to the semi-finals of the Canada Open Super 500 badminton tournament.

Sindhu who has two Olympic medals in her cabinet pulled off a dominant victory over Fang Jie to register her first victory in four meetings against her opponent with a superior 21-13, 21-7 margin in the women’s singles quarterfinals late on Friday night.

Lakshya Sen, on the other hand, had to dig deep but he saw off competition from German qualifier Julien Carraggi 21-8, 17-21, 21-10 in the men’s singles quarter-final.

Sindhu will now face a stern test against World Number One Akane Yamaguchi of Japan while Sen will be up against fourth-seeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto.

The positive thing about Sindhu’s matchup is that she possesses a favourable 14-10 head-to-head record against the Japanse shuttler. With that being said though, Yamaguchi did beat her the last time the two of them came face to face at the Singapore Open this year.

Sen, meanwhile, is tied at parity in his matchup with Nishimoto and they share a 1-1 head-to-head record. They had last squared off against each other at the 2022 Japan Open.

Sindhu looked to be on her toes as she leapt her way to a 5-1 lead early on in the encounter with Jie. Her trademark smashes and drops troubled the opposition who struggled to deal with them and also committed lot of unforced errors. The Indian entered the break with a 11-6 lead.

Sindhu displayed remarkably agile footwork and covered the court well, returning everything thrown at her with ease. Even though the shuttle hit the net a few times, Fang Jie reduced the deficit to 10-14 and then 12-16 but Sindhu finished things with two whipping smashes.

The second game began on a more even footing with Fang Jie managing a narrow 5-3 lead at one stage but Sindhu quickly turned things around, reaching the break at 11-5 with her opponent finding the net.

It was mostly a one-way traffic as Sindhu made her opponent work hard, dominating the rallies to keep moving ahead. Looking for precision, the Chinese missed the lines and soon handed over the match to the Indian with two net errors.