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Srikanth, Lakshya assured of medals at BWF World Badminton Championships

On a historic day for country’s badminton, India were assured of at least two medals at the 2021 BWF World Badminton Championships after former world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth and young Lakshya Sen entered the men’s singles semi-finals of the event, here on Friday.

Sentinel Digital Desk

HISTORIC DAY FOR INDIA'S BADMINTON

HUELVA: On a historic day for country's badminton, India were assured of at least two medals at the 2021 BWF World Badminton Championships after former world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth and young Lakshya Sen entered the men's singles semi-finals of the event, here on Friday.

Meanwhile, ace Indian shuttler Srikanth beat Dutch badminton player Mark Caljouw 21-8, 21-7 to advance to the semi-finals in men's singles.

The 12th seeded Indian used his cross-court smashes to perfection and gave Caljouw no chance, winning the quarter-finals quite comfortably in just 26 minutes.

This is Srikanth's first semi-final appearance at the world championships. With this, he has now ensured his first and India's 11th medal at the World Championships.

Youngster Lakshya Sen also made his way into the semis after a hard-fought 21-15, 15-21, 22-20 win over China's Zhao Jun Peng. Lakshya saved a match point at 19-21 and won two more points to assure a bronze medal.

Now, Lakshya and Srikanth will face each other in the last four, which means that India will win at least a bronze and a silver medal — since one will go through to the final.

This is the first time that India will have two medals in the men's singles in the same edition of the badminton world championships. India had only won two men's singles medals across world championships history until now. IANS

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