India Open 2021: Lakshya Sen beats world champion Loh Kean Yew in final, wins title on tournament debut

Categories: SPORTS

        Lakshya Sen became the first Indian to win an Indian Open men's singles title on debut in the tournament as he beat reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew 24-22, 21-17 in a thrilling final on Sunday in New Delhi. Lakshya beat the Singaporean, who had defeated Kidambi Srikanth in December to win a surprise World Championship title, in a match that lasted 54 minutes.

       This is Lakshya's first Super 500 title on the BWF tour. He had earlier won bronze in the 2021 World Championships after losing to Srikanth in the semi-final.

Lakshya had raced to a 16-10 lead in the first game before Loh managed to fight back and even level proceedings at 19-19. The pair then exchanged match points before Lakshya ran out 24-22 victory.The second game was close fought until but Lakshya won two consecutive points after leading 19-17 to win the match and the championship.

       Lakshya was the second Indian representative on the final day of the tournament as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men's doubles title earlier on Sunday. The second seeds beat Indonesian top seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 26-24 to win their maiden Indian Open title.