Sydney, 22 November. India’s top shuttler Lakshya Sen in the current BWF World Rankings continued his exploits at the Australian Open Super 500 badminton tournament and reached the doorstep of his first title of the year when he came back from match point to break the challenge of second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in a hard-fought semi-final on Saturday.

Sen’s extraordinary comeback after losing the first game

World number 14 Lakshya, who came to play the fourth match of the day on court number one of Sydney Olympic Park, made an extraordinary comeback after losing the first game against Chou Tien, who is eight places higher in the world rankings and after saving three match points, won the dilemma 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 that lasted for one hour and 16 minutes.

There will be a title fight with unseeded Japanese Tanaka

Seventh seeded Lakshya, who finished runner-up at the Hong Kong Open in September during the current season and reached the semi-finals of the Japan Masters last week, will now face unseeded Japanese Yushi Tanaka for the title. Tanaka, ranked 26 in the world, stunned fifth seed Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei and won 21-18, 21-15 in just 38 minutes. Lakshya and Tanaka will be face to face for the first time.

Talking about the semi-finals, World Championship 2022 bronze medalist Chou Tien easily won the first game after taking an early 4-0 lead. But World Championship 2021 bronze medalist Lakshya, who struggled with some net mistakes in the first game, found strength in the second game.

Sen made a comeback after saving three match points in the second game

Although Chou Tien was ahead 7-4, Lakshya leveled the score at 9-9 and then took a two-point lead at the intermission. Chen came back to level the score at 12-12 and then took the lead at 20-18 after falling behind at 14-17. At the moment Lakshya saved three match points and dragged the match into a decisive game.

Lakshya leveled the score at 4-4 against Chen Tian

Sen led 7–2 in the last game when Chou Tien Chen began to misfire. The Indian shuttler led 11-6 at the break and never let go of his grip and produced a brilliant finish to reach his second final of the 2025 BWF World Tour season. With this win, the Indian shuttler has leveled the score at 4-4 in eight meetings against Chou Tien.