Lakshya Sen was in cruise control as he defeated Indonesian fourth seed Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay in the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Jakarta on Saturday.
The 16-year-old was hardly troubled as he beat the local boy 21-7, 21-14 in 40 minutes to set up a summit clash with the reigning world junior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand on Sunday. Vitidsarn, who is also the junior world No 1, beat China’s Yupeng Bai, ranked fourth in the world, in straight games 21-14, 21-12 in the other semi-final.
Sen, the sixth seed in Jakarta, breezed through the first game 21-7 as he profited from a number of unforced errors from the Indonesian, who just was not able to get his shots on target. The 18-year-old put up a better fight in the second game, as he attempted to keep the rallies longer and play more downward strokes, in a bid to reduce the number of smash opportunities for Sen.
The Indian held a slender 11-10 lead at the break in the second game, but the Indonesian crumbled after the interval, conceding the match rather tamely.
Sen is unlikely to have as easy a task in the final against Vitidsarn, who has had a great season so far, winning the Dutch Junior, German Junior, Indonesia Junior Grand Prix and Thailand Junior titles.
Sen, on the other hand, started his 2018 season only in April after recovering from a shoulder injury. Last year, he won the India International Series and the Bulgarian Open in the senior category and lost in the quarter-finals of the world junior championship.
Sen gave a dominant performance in the quarter-finals on Friday, crushing China’s second seed Li Shifeng 21-14, 21-12 in 38 minutes. The 16-year-old thus avenged his defeat against the Chinese in the quarter-finals of the world junior championships last year.
The girls’ singles final on Sunday will be an all-Chinese affair, contested between junior world No 2 Zhiyi Wang and the fifth-ranked Zhou Meng.