The young Indian shuttlers Tharun Mannepalli and Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals of the 2025 Macau Open Super 300 Tournament in Macau, China, on Friday.
Both players defeated Chinese opponents in the tight three-game quarterfinal matches to make it to the final four of a BWF World Tour tournament for the first time in 2025.
Tharun knocked out (21-12, 13-21, 21-18) the reigning junior world champion Zhu An Hu, while Lakshya got past the Thailand Masters semi-finalist Xuan Chen Zhu, 21-14, 18-21, 21-14.
Lakshya has finally breached the quarterfinal mark on the BWF Tour after 10 tournaments since his triumph at the Syed Modi International late last year.
He solidly started the match, gaining a 6-point lead at the first mid-game interval of the match, and then converted the opening game comfortably by 21-14.
He was looking good for a straight-game finish after a similar 5-point lead in the second game, but then the Chinese shuttler made a comeback and levelled the score at 18-18 and closed it by winning the final 3 points on the trot.
Lakshya recovered from this setback quickly and followed the pattern of early leads in the decider with another 6-point advantage, and this time converted it in his favour efficiently, 21-14.
Meanwhile, the Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced a quarterfinal exit after failing to convert a winning position against the Malaysian pair, 14-21, 21-13, 20-22.
