The lone Indian left in the fray, Lakshya Sen went down fighting against Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-15, 13-21, 21-16 in the semifinals of the Japan Open Super 750 tournament in Tokyo on Saturday.
Though Lakshya came back strong after losing the first game to win the second, Christie got the better of the Indian in the third game. Lakshya played some good rallies injecting a lot of pace but the Indonesian managed to find winners by mixing his strokes.
The Asian Games gold medallist secured a four-point lead at the mandatory change of courts in the third game. He widened that to 12-7 immediately after the break.
While Lakshya tried to change the pace of the rallies and hit some powerful smashes he was not able to break Christie's defence. The Indonesian managed to maintain at least a three-point margin before going for the kill at 18-15. Despite the loss Lakshya would be happy with his progress over the last four weeks.
