Tokyo: India's Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run, notching up a straight-game win over local hope Koki Watanabe to progress to the semifinals of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

A 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, world No. 13 Lakshya registered a 21-15, 21-19 victory over Watanabe, ranked 33rd, to make his third successive semifinals, following his exploits in Canada and the United States.

The 21-year-old from Almora, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will play fifth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie for a place in the final.

H S Prannoy went down to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen in a thrilling quarterfinal clash. Keralite Prannoy fought back to win the opening game 21-19. 

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Prannoy raced to a 5-0 lead and had an 11-7 advantage at the break in the second game. But Axelsen bounced back to win the game 21-18.

The Dane took control of the decider and closed out the tie 21-8.

The in-form men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, couldn't produce their 'A' game, going down 15-21, 25-23, 16-21 to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei.

Lakshya, who had won the Canada Open Super 500 early this month, opened up a 5-3 lead early on before moving to 11-7 at the break. The Indian didn't have much problem negotiating the Japanese and soon sealed the opening game with two cross court returns on both side of the court.

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After the change of sides, Watanabe tried to inject some pace in the rallies but Lakshya looked in control and moved to 3-2 with a lovely cross court drop. A 42-shot rally ended with Lakshya's backhand crashing into the net as Watanabe turned it around to lead 5-3 before consolidating it further at 7-3.

The Japanese strengthened his defence as soon things seemed like going down the downhill for Lakshya, who trailed 7-14.

However, the Indian scripted a turnaround, drawing his opponent to the net and using the drop shots to good effect. He soon turned the tables at 18-17 with a cross court smash.

With two returns on his opponent's backhand, Lakshya gained one-match point before producing another precise return at the back-line and then threw his racquet in celebration.

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