India’s campaign ends with Lakshya Sen, Tharun Mannepalli’s semifinal loss

India’s campaign at the Macau Open ended with Lakshya Sen and Mannepalli’s semifinal losses. Despite strong performances, both players could not reach the final, marking a promising but unfinished journey

Macau: India’s campaign at the Macau Open came to an end on Saturday after Lakshya Sen and Tharun Mannepalli lost in their respective men’s singles semifinals on Saturday.

Lakshya suffered a 16-21, 9-21 loss against fifth-seeded Indonesian Alwi Farhan in 39 minutes, while Mannepalli’s went down fighting 21-19, 16-21, 16-21 against Malaysia’s Justin Hoh in one hour and 21 minutes.

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This was Lakshya Sen’s deepest run in any 2025 BWF World Tour event so far as this was his first semifinal in 10 BWF tour events since his triumph at the Syed Modi International late last year. He has suffered two second-round and six opening-round exits this season, including one at the China Open.

Lakshya battled his way into the quarterfinals after a hard-fought win on Thursday and followed it up with a three-game win over Zhu Xuan Chen of China.

For the 23-year-old Mannepalli, the semifinal run in Macau was his career’s best result so far. He made his way to the last four after knocking out Chinese shuttler Hu Zhe An 21-12, 13-21, 21-18. He earlier pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the day after staging a remarkable comeback to defeat top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

Tharun surged to an early 11-6 lead in the opening game, but a series of unforced errors allowed Hoh to claw his way back, levelling the score at 18-all. The Indian kept his composure and closed out the game.

Hoh maintained a narrow lead through most of the second game, with Tharun staying within striking distance. But from 17-16, the World No. 45 reeled off four consecutive points to force a decider. In the third game, Tharun conceded seven straight points from 9-all, which proved decisive, as the Malaysian sealed the win and reached the final.

India’s top men’s doubles duo and world No. 9 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost in the quarter-finals against Malaysia’s Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal on Friday.

India’s women’s singles campaign at the Macau Open came to an end on Thursday after the only remaining player in the draw, Rakshitha Ramraj, went down fighting 14-21, 21-10, 21-11 against second seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand.