Sen becomes first Indian male shuttler to reach semis

Paris: Lakshya Sen inched closer to a maiden Olympic medal after becoming the first Indian male shuttler to advance to the semifinals with a thrilling three-game win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen at the Paris Games here on Friday.

The 22-year-old from Almora, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, combined pace with precision and held his nerve during key moments to emerge 19-21 21-15 21-12 winner against world number 11 Chou, a 2022 World Championships bronze medallist in an intense quarterfinal battle.

Sen, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will face the winner of the match between 2021 World Champion Loh kean Yew of Singapore and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the last four.

Women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are the only Indians to have crossed the quarterfinal stage in Olympics. In men's singles, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth had reached the quarterfinals in 2012 London and 2016 Rio editions respectively.