Youth Olympics: Shuttler Sen advances to singles final

Title favourite Indian Lakshya Sen recovered from a game deficit to beat Kodai Naraoka of Japan to enter the final of men's singles badminton competition to at least be assured of a silver medal here.

Sen, the reigning Asian junior champion, lost the first game 14-21 but came back to beat Naraoka in the next two to pocket the semifinal match Thursday night. The Indian levelled the match by winning the second game 21-15.

The deciding game was a neck-to-neck affair with none of the two players giving an inch. The game went into the duece and Sen eventually won it 24-22 after a 36-minute tussle.

Sen will now meet Li Shifeng of China in the final.

If Sen wins the final match, he will become the first Indian gold medallist shuttler in the Youth Olympics. Prannoy Kumar had won a silver in the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.