Lakshya Sen on Sunday clinched his second consecutive Super 100 title after beating Chinese shuttler Weng Hong Yang 17-21, 21-18, 21-16 in the final of SaarLorLuxOpen title in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Sen, seeded eighth in the Super 100 level tournament, secured a comeback victory against his opponent in a contest that lasted 59 minutes.
The teenager, who had beaten compatriot Kiran George to reach the final, endured a nervy start as he lost the first game. However, Sen fought back to take it to the decider where he won eight straight points while trailing 13-16 to emerge victorious, thus continuing his impressive run in the senior circuit.
This is Lakshya’s third straight title victory this year after the Belgian International Challenge and Dutch Open Super 100 events. Besides that, the teenager had also bagged silver at the Polish Open.
The 18-year-old from Uttarakhand had come into the final with a 1-2 head-to-head record against the Chinese but it didn’t matter as he rallied his way after squandering the first game to complete a thrilling win here.
After this win, Lakshyaa is set to break into the top 50 when the BWF rankings are released on Tuesday.
Lakshya had a good start as he was leading 14-11 but he couldn’t sustain the pressure on his opponent who turned the tables to win the opening game.
Stung by the reversal, Lakshya jumped to a 8-4 lead in the second game. The Indian quickly moved to 13-6. Weng reduced it to 10-14 but Lakshya managed to stay ahead of his rival and take the match into the decider.
In the third game, Lakshya fell behind 5-7 but managed to claw back at 10-10 before Weng moved to a 16-13 lead.
A fighting Lakshya then stepped on the gas and reeled off the remaining eight points to leave his rival stranded.
Lakshya is likely to participate in two International Challenge events, the Irish Open (November 13-16) and Scottish Open (November 21-24) – before featuring in the Syed Modi International Super 300 (November 26-December 1).
(With PTI inputs)