Sydney, Nov 21 (IANS) Lakshya Sen powered past a determined Ayush Shetty in straight games to reach the men’s singles semifinals of the Australian Open Super 500 at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday.

The seventh seed, who had also defeated the 20-year-old at the same stage of the Hong Kong Open earlier this year, prevailed 23–21, 21–11 to book a semifinal meeting with second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

World No. 9 Chou, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, battled past Farhan Alwi 13–21, 23–21, 21–16 in a gruelling contest that stretched to 1 hour and 23 minutes. Alwi had earlier shocked Indian veteran HS Prannoy in the round of 16.

Sen, 26, who reached the Hong Kong Open final earlier this year but is still chasing his first title of the season, faced stiff resistance from Ayush Shetty in the opening game. Trailing 6–9, Sen strung together four points from 9–10 to move ahead 13–10. Shetty — the US Open Super 300 champion — kept clawing back in a fluctuating opener, even drawing level at 21–21, before Sen finally sealed it.

The second game of the 53-minute match was far more straightforward, with Sen racing to a 6–1 advantage and stretching it to 15–7 as Shetty’s challenge faded. Sen now stands as India’s lone representative after early exits for Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth in men’s singles on Thursday.

In men’s doubles, top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who cruised into the quarterfinals with a comfortable win over Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun of Chinese Taipei, lost to fifth seeds Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 19-21, 15-21 to bow out of the tournament.

–IANS

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