All England Championships: Lakshya Sen in semifinals, assured of bronze

Lakshya Sen is assured of at least a bronze as the 20-year-old made it to the semifinals of the All England Championships after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China had withdrawn from the quarterfinals. The fast-rising Indian, who won the bronze at the World Championships last year and triumphed in the India Open earlier this year, added another feather to his cap by reaching the semifinals.

At the last four stage, Lakshya will play the winner of the quarterfinal between second seed Kento Momota of Japan and sixth seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia later on Friday.' Meanwhile, men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty squandered a huge advantage to lose to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia 22-24, 17-21. The Indians were leading 20-15 in the first game before the Indonesians fought back in a gallant fashion.

The top seeds produced a burst of six consecutive points to move to 21-20 before Satwik-Chirag scored a point to make it 21-21. But in the end the Indonesians won two big points to take the first set much to the disappointment of the Indians.

In the second game, the Indians fought hard and it was a see-saw battle till the 15th point before the Indonesians raced ahead to win the match.