Lakshya Sen ended a long drought of titles, winning the Super 500 Australian Open at Sydney, beating Japanese Yushi Tanaka 21-15, 21-11 in one of the easiest finals he has pocketed.
He gestured keeping out the noise with index fingers in his earlobes and eyes closed, upon winning, after a week of hard work.
This is Sen’s third Super 500 title, and he converted his second final of the year, after losing Hong Kong.
It was an eventful week where Sen defeated compatriot Ayush Shetty and Chou Tien Chen in hard fought matches.
The final in comparison was a breeze. He had spent 85 minutes on the court in winning semis, but Tanaka proved a more amiable opponent. Error-prone, facing massive accuracy issues, Tanaka kept spraying his smashes and botching what he reckoned were delicate strokes. His precision was poor, and the luckless Japanese who has been dubbed a domestic giant, had a strong of first and second round losses before he fetched up in the final.
Sen stuck to bare basics, and for once allowed the flashy opponent to make muddled shot selections and pile up negatives. Sen’s defense wasn’t tested exactly in the 38 minutes, but Tanaka through his unpredictability threatened sudden explosions.
Still, Sen led almost start to finish, against the edgy opponent and the closest Tanaka got to dispersing Sen’s attention was at 15-13 in the first. But Sen would scatter the shuttle expertly and collect points in a bunch. Tanaka fell into the script and didn’t help himself with unforced errors.
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At 17-15 Tanaka briefly impressed with gritty defending, but otherwise it was Sen all the way. Tanaka’s fancy drops from the back court would land inside the net, and Sen was finally rewarded for all the hard work and determination shown after his Paris Olympics loss last year.
Though it was too late to qualify for World Tour Finals, Sen ensured he ended the international swing with a title before he heads home.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
