Lakshya Sen spoiled Chou Tien Chen’s three match-point opportunities as he stormed into the final of the Hong Kong Open Super 500 at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon on Saturday.
Lakshya bagged five points in a row to win a roller-coaster semifinal 23-21, 22-20 and reach his first Super 500 final since the Canada Open in 2023.
Playing against a familiar opponent in Chou, Lakshya relied on his agility and commanded the net superbly to get the better of the Chinese Taipei shuttler. He stomped around the court to dictate the rallies and showed his ability to turn things around even when trailing in the second game. Lakshya had beaten HS Prannoy and Ayush Shetty in the earlier rounds.
Lakshya will face Li Shi Feng in the final. Shi Feng beat Christo Popov 21-18, 21-19 in the other semifinal.
Satwik-Chirag break semifinal jinx
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty broke their semifinal jinx as they stormed into the final of the Hong Kong Open Super 500. Satwik and Chirag – the eighth-seeded pair – defeated Chinese Taipei’s Bing-Wei Lin and Chen Cheng Kuan 21-17, 21-15 to reach their first final of the season after six semifinal heartbreaks.
Ranked ninth in the world, Satwik and Chirag are now set for a high-octane final against familiar foes Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China. Liang and Wang defeated Chinese Taipei’s Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee 21-19, 21-8 in the other semifinal. Satwik and Chirag enjoy a 9-7 head-to-head record against the former World No. 1 pair, with their most recent win coming at the World Championships.
The Indians, who became only the second Indian male players to win more than one medal at the World Championships in Paris in August, will be determined to end their barren run.
“Final, finally. We’ve been constantly playing semifinals and we really wanted to make the final,” Chirag told BWF after reaching the final. “It’s been a while so we are extremely happy.”
For Satwik and Chirag, Hong Kong had always been choppy waters. But 2025 feels like the year to turn the tide.
“Hong Kong has never been good for us,” Satwik said. “Pre-COVID, we always lost in the first round. A bit like our story in Singapore (Open) but I felt this time we could change it around.”
Reflecting on their campaign at the World Championships, where they beat higher-seeded Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik en route to the last four, Chirag said: “Although we would have loved to play the final, the pairs we beat with the confidence we had going to Paris exceeded our expectations.”
Their last title came at the Thailand Open Super 500 in May last year. Satwik and Chirag are now on the brink of winning their first title in 15 months.