Sydney, Nov 22 (PTI) Star Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles final of the Australian Open Super 500 with a gritty three-game win over world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, here on Saturday.

Lakshya, a 2021 World Championships bronze-medallist, showed immense mental toughness to recover from an opening-game setback and outlast the second seed 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 in an 86-minute semifinal.

The 24-year-old, who reached the Hong Kong Open final earlier this year but is yet to win a title this season, will face either Japan’s Yushi Tanaka or Chinese Taipei’s fifth seed Lin Chun-Yi in Sunday’s summit clash.

Lakshya looked patchy early on while Chen was far more precise with his shot selection and execution, which allowed the Taiwanese to dominate the rallies. H

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