Sixth-seeded Lakshya Sen caused one of the major upsets so far in the Badminton Asia Junior Championships when he toppled second-seeded Chinese Li Shifeng 21-14 21-12 to enter the men singles semi-finals on the third day of the individual events at Jakarta yesterday. Lakskya, who ensured himself at least a bronze medal, will take on Indonesian and fourth seed Ikhsan Leonardo Rumbay in the semi-finals tomorrow. However, the men doubles' pair of Manjit Singh and Dingko Singh bowed out in the pre-quarters to top-seeded Chinese duo of Di Zijian and Wang Chang, the title favourites.

The Chinese pair won 21-7 21-15. In the match-up between sixth-seeded Indian and second-seeded Chinese, the scales were tilted heavily in favour of the latter. But it was a bit of a surprise for Li who got the first jolt when the Indian thumped him so royally that he could not recover from the shock. Employing his net-play to good effect and using half-court smashes assiduously Lakshya put his Chinese rival under lot of pressure. So much so, in a hurry to garner points, he was prone to committing mistakes.