ACE Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen fought hard before going down in three games against the eventual winner Li Shi Feng of China in the men’s singles semi-finals of the US Open badminton tournament in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Sen, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and seeded third, lost 17-21, 24-22, 17-21 against secondseed Feng in a gruelling last-four match in the BWF Super 300 event last Saturday (15) night.
It was a close fight between world No 7 Feng and Sen, ranked 12th, in the opening game until they reached 17 points before the Chinese player surged ahead with some aggressive strokeplay.
But the World Championships bronze medallist Sen was in no mood to give up without a fight and bounced back strongly in the second game.
Both players tried to outwit each other with a mix of clever drop shots and smashes but the battle continued before Sen pocketed two straight points to draw level and take the match into a decider.
That game, however, was a carbon copy of the first as Feng took the early initiative to lead 11-8 at the break.
Sen kept himself in the hunt but his Chinese opponent pressed the accelerator to pocket the game and the match.
The Indian had defeated the Chinese player 21-18, 22-20 to win the Canada Open, his second BWF Super 500 title last week.
