Sydney: fast and fluent Lakshya Sen ended a difficult stretch on the international circuit by clinching his first title of the season, defeating Japan’s Yushi Tanaka in the men’s singles final of the USD 475,000 Australian Open Super 500 Sunday.
The 24-year-old from Almora, who had endured a tough phase after finishing fourth at the Paris Olympics, capped a resurgent week with a commanding performance, outplaying the 26-year-old Tanaka 21-15 21-11 in 38 minutes.
Lakshya, a 2021 World Championships bronze-medallist, had last won a Super 300 title at the Syed Modi International in Lucknow in 2024. However, a top-tier crown had eluded him since his triumph at the Canada Open that same year, though he came close at the Hong Kong Super 500 in September when he finished runner-up.
Facing world No. 26 Tanaka, winner of two Super 300 titles this year at the Orléans Masters and the US Open, Lakshya displayed crisp control, sharp placement and clean execution to wrap up the contest without dropping a game.
With this victory, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion became only the second Indian to win a BWF World Tour title this season, following Ayush Shetty’s maiden Super 300 triumph at the US Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had reached the finals at the Hong Kong and China Masters, while Kidambi Srikanth also logged a runner-up finish at the Malaysia Masters earlier in the year.
PTI
