17th January 2022 – Lakshya Sen won his first India Open Men’s Singles Title in his debut tournament, beating Singaporean World Champion Loh Kean Yew.
He beat the Singaporean in straight sets, 24-22, and 21-17 to take an interesting final on Sunday.
The first game saw Lakshya race to a 16-10 lead, before Loh managed a comeback to level the game at 19-19. The game continued with both the players getting sight of the victory before Sen took the game 24-22.
The second game, however was closely contested with Lakshya leading the game by just two points at 19-17.
However, he managed to win two consecutive points, to take his points tally to 21 and winning the game, and eventually the championship with 21-17.
“It feels nice to win. In the end I was a little anxious to win. But I’m happy I pulled off the win,” Sen commented on how he felt during the fag end of the game.
Sen took a confident and level headed approach to pressure, as he won the small important moments leading to his victory.
It was not long before that he had came under a similar situation, as he held on to his nerves to win the semifinals. He carried on that confidence and momentum to counter the pressure of winning the finals.
Loh Kean Yew was crowned winner in the World Championship, beating Kidambi Srikanth in a match that lasted 54 minutes.
Sen had earlier won the bronze medal in the same tournament in December, after losing the Semifinals to Srikanth.
Earlier, in the day Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had won the doubles title taking out the Indonesian seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan by winning straight sets 21-16, 26-24.
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