Eighth seed Lakshya was 12th in the Race to Finals standings with 64,980 points before this event and needed to break into the top eight to qualify for the season-ending event.
The title at the Super 500 event earned Lakshya 9,200 points, which will lift him to sixth place in the standings with 74,180 points when they are updated on Tuesday.
However, the race to Hangzhou is not over yet, as the Hong Kong Open (November 17-22) is the last qualifying event.
“Definitely that is one thing which we will be fighting for and yes, this tournament will definitely help me get good points for that as well. Now I have one more tournament, the Hong Kong Open, so now focused on that.”
Coming into the final, Lakshya held a 3-2 lead over Watanabe in their career head-to-head, although the Japanese had won their last two meetings.
Watanabe opened up a 3-0 lead, with Lakshya looking a tad laid-back initially. The Japanese nailed his smashes to perfection, varying the pace. He repeatedly produced straight down-the-line smashes on Lakshya’s forehand side to move to 6-1. Lakshya cut the deficit to 5-8.
