Kumamoto, Nov 15 (IANS) Lakshya Sen fought back from a game down to beat home favourite Koki Watanabe 13-21, 21-18, 21-14 win in the men’s singles final in one hour and four minutes and win the Kumamoto Masters title here at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium on Sunday.

With a title triumph, Lakshya became the first-ever Indian to win Kumamoto Masters tournament since its inception in 2023. Earlier, he became the first ever Indian shuttler to reach the tournament's final.

This was Lakshya's second successive BWF Super 500 crown after his Hylo Open triumph in Germany earlier this month. This is the first time in his career that he has won two BWF World Tour titles in a single season. Overall, this was his sixth BWF World Tour title.

Watanabe made the strong start, as he raced through the opening game 21-13 without letting the Indian take the lead at any point. Lakshya then steadied himself in the second game and held 13-10 lead before reeling off six consecutive points to take a nine-point cushion. However, Watanabe responded with seven straight points of his own to reduce the deficit to 19-17.

Under pressure, Lakshya, who did himself a big favour for his chances of qualifying to the BWF World Tour Finals 2026 in Hangzhou, held strong to take the second game and force a decider.

In the decider, both players went toe-to-toe in the early exchanges. However, from the score at 5-5, Lakshya slowly began to break away and built up an 11-7 lead heading into the interval before comfortably wrapping up the win.

Lakshya cruised through his first three rounds in straight games before needing three games to dispatch 6th seed Alwi Farhan in the semifinals. It was a third BWF Tour final of the year for Sen, who had finished runner-up at the All England Open in March before his back-to-back Super 500 titles.

With the title win, Lakshya bagged 9,200 ranking points, which is a decisive boost for his season-ending campaign.

--IANS

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