Saarbrucken (Germany), Nov 7 || Two Indians reached the men's singles semi-finals of the HYLO Open BWF World Tour Super 500 event but both failed to progress as Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen crashed out in straight games.
Srikanth seeded sixth here, lost to second seed Lee Zil Jia of Malaysia 21-19, 22-20 while Sen lost to Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 18-21, 12-21 as India's hopes in the tournament came to an end on Saturday.
Srikanth lost to Lee of Malaysia in a hard-fought encounter -- 21-19, 22-20 -- in 44 minutes. Srikanth and Lee remained neck and neck and the Malaysian won the last two points from 19-all as he won the first game. There was not much difference between the two players as they matched each other point for point. Srikanth led 3-2 before Lee caught up and went ahead 9-6. Srikanth had to play catch up after that but could not overtake the Malaysian.
In the second game, Lee took the early lead 4-0 before Srikanth caught up with him at 5-5. Srikanth won seven consecutive points as he led 15-8 before Lee fought back and caught up with him at 17-17. They were again tied at 20-20 but the Malaysian player won the next two points to clinch his place in the final.
Lakshya Sen had a slight edge at 9-8 but his opponent from Singapore remained on his toes as they went neck and neck before Loh won the last few points to win it 21-18. The Singapore player was more aggressive and controlled the game better as he won 21-12 in 46 minutes.