Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag reach finals of Hong Kong Open 2025
India’s Lakshya Sen has reached the final of the first major tournament in two years while the star men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also entered the final of the Hong Kong Open Super 500 with a straight-game win on Saturday. Lakshya, a 23-year-old 2021 World Championship bronze medalist from Almora, defeated world number nine Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 23-21, 22-20. Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya last made it to the final of the Canada Open Super 500 tournament in July 2023. He won the Syed Modi International Super 300 title in Lucknow in December last year.
Currently ranked 20th in the world rankings, Lakshya will now face second seed Li Shi Feng of China. Earlier, the world number nine doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag defeated Chinese Taipei’s Bing-Wei Lin and Chen Cheng Kuan 21-17, 21-15 to reach their first final after losing six semi-final matches this season.
The eighth seeded Indian pair will face the China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang who defeated Chinese Taipei’s Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee in their semi final. In the opening game, both the pairs were tied at 3-3 and 6-6. But thanks to Satwik’s smash and Chirag’s sharp ‘interception’, the Indian pair took a 11-8 lead. Although the Taiwanese pair made a comeback and made the score 12-12, the Indian pair took a 15-12 lead.
Indian pair made a great comeback
With Chirag’s sharp return, he won the game on the second game point. In the next game, Chen and Lin started strongly and were ahead 4-2, but India equalized the score at 6-6. Due to some unforced errors by Chirag, the Taiwanese pair went ahead 10-8. But Satwik hit another fast smash to level the score at 12-12. Then the Indian pair strengthened their hold and made the score 17-15. Soon the score became 19-15. But a net mistake by Chen gave Satwik and Chirag five match points.
