India, March 8 -- India's Lakshya Sen produced an authoritative display to storm into the semifinals of the $1,450,000 All England Open after defeating former champion Li Shifeng of China in straight games here.

The world Number 12 Indian, runner-up at the 2022 edition, prevailed 21-13 21-16 over the world Number 6 Chinese in exactly an hour to set up a last four clash against Canada's Victor Lai, who beat Japan's Koki Watanabe 18-21 21-17 21-15 in another quarterfinal match.

It is Lakshya's third semifinal at the prestigious championships. "Happy with the way I played both the sets and also credit to him (Shifeng), he played a really solid game. There were some long rallies, both of us were getting tired, but yeah, happy with the way I...