Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen fought hard before going down in three games against reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of China in the men’s singles semi-finals of the US Open badminton tournament.

A Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Lakshya, seeded third here, lost 17-21, 24-22, 17-21 against second-seed Feng in a gruelling last-four match that lasted one hour and 16 minutes in the BWF Super 300 event on Saturday night.

It was a close fight between world No. 7 Feng and Lakshya, ranked 12th, in the opening game till 17 points before the Chinese surged ahead with aggressive play as the Indian committed some unforced errors.

But World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya was in no mood to give up without a fight and bounced back strongly in the second game.

The decider was a carbon copy of the first game as Feng took the early initiative to lead 11-8 at the break.

Lakshya had defeated the Chinese to win the Canada Open, his second BWF Super 500 title last week.