Badminton News: Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen performed brilliantly and defeated rising French player Alex Lanier in straight games to finish third in the King Cup International Badminton Open in Shenzhen, China on Sunday.
The 23-year-old player from Almora defeated Lanier 21-17, 21-11 and won around Rs 36 lakh as prize money in the first session of this tournament. Lakshya had earlier lost to current world junior champion Hu Zhean of China in the semi-finals in a close match 19-21, 19-21 on Saturday.
In the third-place play-off, Lakshya started off strong and took a 6–1 lead, but Lanier fought back to level the score at 10–10. Lakshya once again took the lead with a brilliant game and took the score to 18-15. He then secured three game points. Lanier played the shuttle out of the court, resulting in the first goal of the game.
The Indian player maintained the momentum in the second game and converted the lead of 8-6 to 15-8. He then registered an easy win after securing nine match points.
