Leuven (Belgium): Rising Indian shuttler and former junior World No. 1 Lakshya Sen stunned second seed Victor Svendsen of Denmark in straight games to clinch the men’s singles title at the Belgian International Challenge badminton tournament here, Saturday.
Lakshya Sen was at his best as he notched up a comfortable 21-14, 21-15 win over Svendsen in the title clash which lasted for 34 minutes.
The 18-year-old from Almora had earlier beaten Denmark’s Kim Bruun 21-18, 21-11 win in a 48-minute semifinal clash Friday night.
The first game of the semifinal was a close affair initially with Lakshya and Bruun exchanging leads frequently before the Danish shuttler jumped to a 11-9 advantage at the break. However, Lakshya erased the deficit after the interval and build on a slender 13-12 lead to slowly move ahead and eventually pocketed the opening game comfortably. In the second game, Lakshya gave his opponent no chance at all.
The final in comparison was an easy affair. Lakshya was dominant from the start against Svendsen, hitting winners all round the court. Lakshya’s drop shots always had the Danish player in trouble. Except for a brief moment in the first game when he led 3-2, the Danish player was always playing the catch up game.
Agencies
