India's Lakshya Sen registered a sensational win over Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the semifinal of All England Open Badminton 2022 on Saturday. He won 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in a match that lasted 1 hour and 16 minutes in Birmingham. (More Badminton News)
Lakshya will now face top seed and Tokyo Olympics champion Viktor Axelsen, who got better of Chou Tien Chen 21-13. 21-15 in the other semifinal on the day.
The Indian won the first game 21-13 despite Lee Zii Jia fighting tooth and nail to stay in the game. However, in the second game it was the 23-year-old Malaysian who dictated terms. He dominated the game since the start and eventually won it 21-12.
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The game saw no real competition as Lee Zii Jia sealed it before Laskhya could come back from behind. In the third and final game, Lakshya didn't look his usual self as Lee Zii Jia threatened again with his dominating performance but the Indian eventually bounced back and sealed the game 21-19 and thus the match.
Here is the winning moment:
It is worth noting that the 20-year-old emerging Indian star had advanced to the men's singles semifinals after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China gave a walkover in the quarterfinal match of the tournament. Prior to that, Sen had stunned world no 3 Anders Antonsen in straight games with scores of 21-16, 21-18.
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Sen is the fifth Indian to have entered the final of All England Open Badminton. India's Prakash Nath was the first to achieve the feat way back in 1947. However, he ended the tournament as runner-up.
Meanwhile, Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to win the title in 1980 before losing in the final the very next year. 20 years later, Pullela Gopichand too won the title. After him, Saina Nehwal ended as runner-up in 2015.
Sen, the boy from Uttarakhand’s Almora, is having a good run this year. He had secured his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January before ending the German Open as a runner-up last week.
On the other hand, Sen’s semifinal opponent in Birmingham, Lee Zii Jia, had advanced to the final 4 after inching world number 2 Kento Momota 21-7, 13-21, 21-11 in his preceding game.
However, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand's brilliant run in the competition came to an end on Saturday. The Indian women's doubles pair lost to Chinese pair of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu 21-17, 21-16 in the semifinals.
Other Results
Among other matches, fourth seed An Seyoung stunned top-seed Tai Tzu Ying 21-19, 21-13 in a highly-entertaining women's singles semifinal on Saturday. An Seyoung, who had defeated India's PV Sindhu to win the BWF World Tour final last year, will face second-seed Akane Yamaguchi in the final.
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Yamaguchi defeated Chinese Chen Yu Fei 21-11, 21-13.
