Lakshya enters semifinals of Dutch Open

Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen sailed into the men's singles semifinals with a straight-game win over compatriot B M Rahul Bharadwaj at the Dutch Open Super 100 tournament here.

The 18-year-old from Almora, who had clinched the Belgian Open last month, beat Bharadwaj 21-9 21-16 in just 37 minutes on Friday night.

Lakshya, who had won the Asian Junior champion, a silver at Youth Olympic Games and a bronze medal at World Junior Championships last year, will now take on Felix Burestedt of Sweden.

Lakshya dished out a dominating game, moving to a 6-0 lead early on and then jumped to 11-3 at the interval.

He continued his march ahead, reeling off six straight points at 13-8 to move to 18-8 and soon pocketed the game comfortably.

In the second game, Bharadwaj opened up a 4-2 lead for a brief period but Lakshya came back to turn the tables and surged to 11-6 at the break.

Bharadwaj tried to make a comeback but Lakshya kept his nose ahead to eventually shut the door on his opponent.