Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen and young badminton sensation Tharun Mannepalli reached the men’s singles semifinals of the Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament after fiercely contested wins on Friday.

Twenty-three-year-old Tharun, ranked 47th in the world, showcased speed and a versatile shot selection to beat China’s Hu Zhe, ranked 87th, 21-12 13-21 21-18 in a 75-minute match.

Later in the day, Lakshya, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and second seed in this tournament, eked out a tough 21-14 18-21 21-14 victory over Xuan Chen Zhu of China in a quarterfinal match which lasted one hour and three minutes.

Lakshya will be pitted against fifth seed Alwi Farhan of Indonesia in the semifinals, while Tharun will face Malaysia’s Justin Hoh in the last-four round. This is Tharun’s first semifinal appearance at a BWF Super 300 event. Earlier, he had reached the quarterfinals at the German Open in February.

Tharun, who joined the Pullela Gopichand Academy four years ago, has focused on improving his fitness, agility and movement over the past two years. His hard work paid off this week as he stunned top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the last-eight match.

Tharun, who had won a gold at the 37th National Games, was trailing 4-7 in the first game before rallying to 12-9. He then took control and won six straight points from 15-11 to seal the game. After the change of ends, Hu played with more intensity, leading 6-2 and extending the lead to 15-6. The Chinese player clearly had the upper hand throughout the second game.

In the decider, Tharun went up 5-0 and maintained an advantage up to 19-15. The match got tense towards the finish as he squandered three points with Hu sending two returns on his forehand corner. 0However, Tharun stayed composed and hit a timely smash to earn two match points. He then quickly secured a win with a precise push to Hu’s backhand corner, and raised his arms in celebration.

Tharun started playing badminton at the age of eight in Khammam, Telangana, before moving to Hyderabad after Class X to pursue the sport seriously.