Canada Open 2023: PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen stromed into the semifinals

Commonwealth Games champions PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen registered contrasting wins to enter the semi-finals of the Canada Open 2023 Super 500 badminton tournament in Calgary on Friday.

Also Read: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen to lead India's challenge at Canada Open 2023

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, beat Gao Fang Jie of China 21-13, 21-7 in the women's singles quarterfinals on Friday night. This is her first win against this player in four matches. Sindhu will now face world number one Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinal match on Saturday. Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen defeated Julien Carraggi of Belgium 21-8, 17-21, 21-10. Sen will face fourth seeded Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the semifinal bout. Lakshya Sen has played in 12 tournaments this year but is yet to play in the final. 

Both PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen are looking for their first BWF title of the season and are India's only remaining challenges in Canada Open 2023.

Sindhu's record against the top seeded Japanese player is 14-10. The last meeting between the two was played at the Singapore Open last year in which the Japanese player won. Sindhu made it to the final of the Spain Masters BWF Super 500 tournament in April but is yet to win a title this year. Sen, on the other hand, has a 1-1 record against Nishimoto.

Also Read: PV Sindhu drops three spots in the latest BWF rankings

Sindhu started well against Fang and took a 5-1 lead. The Indian player was leading 11-6 till the interval and covers the court well. Fang then tried to come back and make it 12-16. But Sindhu did not give her any further chance and won the first game easily. Fang led 5-1 at the start of the second game but Sindhu soon came back and led 11-5 at the interval. After this, she did not take long to win the match.

The Canada Open 2023 final will be played on Sunday.