Paris [France]: Shuttler Lakshya Sen is set to compete for the bronze medal when he takes on world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia on Monday.
Sen had gone down to defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s singles semi-final at the Paris 2024 badminton tournament on Sunday.
Sen who is ranked 22nd in the badminton rankings, lost to world No. 2 Axelsen 22-20, 21-14 in 54 minutes at the La Chapelle Arena.
The Indian shuttler had the first game under control before collapsing. He began the second game with a monumental 7-0 lead before Axelsen roared back to take the game and march into his second straight Olympic final.
The 22-year-old Sen could still become the first Indian badminton player to win an Olympic medal in the men’s event. Lakshya Sen has a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Malaysian, including a win at the All-England Open earlier this year, as per the Olympic.com.
The semi-final began with Sen making three errors, gifting Axelsen a 3-0 lead before a series of strong defensive and attacking combinations allowed the 22-year-old Lakshya to draw level at 5-5.
Sen took the lead for the first time with a fantastic cross-court smash to make it 7-6 and marched into the break with an 11-9 lead. He then opened up a six-point lead at 15-9 and capitalised on Axelsen making a couple of enforced errors to make it 17-11.
Two-time Olympic medallist, Axelsen then won four consecutive points and sensationally saved three game points to make it 20-20 before taking the first game 22-20. Sen made a service error when the score was at 20-17, which allowed the momentum to swing in the Dane’s favour.
Sen, however, bounced back almost immediately and took a sizable 7-0 lead to begin the second game. However, Axelsen showed his pedigree once again and won six of the next seven points and eventually drew level at 10-10.
The Indian shuttler went into the break with an 11-10 lead but the Olympic champion took the lead in the second game for the first time at 13-12. The Dane won nine of the next 12 points to clinch the second game and storm into the gold medal match where he will face world No. 8 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.
This was the reigning Olympic champion’s eighth victory over Sen, who has managed just one win. The Indian badminton ace’s only win against the Danish shuttler came in the German Open more than two years ago.
In the quarter-finals, the unseeded Lakshya Sen defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-Chen in a hard-fought three-game encounter.
As a result, he became the first Indian shuttler to reach the badminton men’s singles semi-finals at the Summer Games. Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth previously reached the quarter-finals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, respectively, as per Olympic.com.
Sen, in his Olympic debut, topped his men’s singles group, by beating reigning All England champion and world No. 4 Jonatan Christie. He also got the better of his compatriot HS Prannoy in the round of 16.