All England badminton: Lakshya Sen stuns Li Shi to enter semifinals

Lakshya Sen defeats Li Shi Feng to reach All England semifinals, avenging last year's quarterfinal defeat.

Lakshya Sen produced an authoritative display to storm into the semifinals of the $1,450,000 All England Open after defeating former champion Li Shifeng of China in straight games in Birmingham.

The world No. 12 Indian, runner up at the 2022 edition, prevailed 21-13 21-16 over the world No. 6 Chinese in exactly an hour to set up a last four clash against Canada’s Victor Lai, who beat Japan’s Koki Watanabe 18-21 21-17 21-15 in another quarterfinal match.

It is Lakshya’s third semifinals at the prestigious championships.

“Happy with the way I played both the sets and also credit to him (Shifeng), he played a really solid game. There were some long rallies, both of us were getting tired, but yeah, happy with the way I stuck in there even after the long rallies,” Lakshya said.

“My coach was also saying just be extra prepared after long rallies because even he is tired, so just don’t give any easy mistakes.

“I’m happy with the way I’m moving on court, and now it’s time to again recover as well so that I can move well tomorrow (Saturday).” Lakshya made a confident start, racing to a 4-1 lead and then extending it to 10-4 with aggressive, positive play as Shifeng appeared slightly tentative in his movement. The Indian held a comfortable 11-6 advantage at the mid game interval.