Lakshya Sen Goes Down Fighting Against Lin Chun-Yi, Finishes Second At All England Open

In the end, it was too tall a mountain to climb, even for the singularly resilient Lakshya Sen. The Indian badminton ace went down fighting to Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-Yi in the men's singles final of the All England Open on Sunday (March 8, 2026). The country's 25-year wait to see a new champion at the coveted tournament thus continued.

The 24-year-old from Almora battled cramps, suffered during his brilliant semi-final win against Victor Lai, before losing the intense title clash 15-21, 20-22. It was Sen's fifth straight defeat to Lin and second runner-up finish at the tournament. He had made the final in 2022 as well, but could not cross the finish line.

Despite having spent more than five hours on the court in the run-up to the final, Sen fought hard through the 57-minute encounter against the lightning-fast Lin, but he ended on the wrong side of the scoreline for the second time in the All England final. Lin, who had won the India Open Super 500 title earlier this year, became the first men’s singles player from Chinese Taipei to clinch the title in the prestigious tournament.

In the final, Sen took time to get off the blocks. But once he found his rhythm, he began to push Lin into longer rallies. The Indian struggled to find the depth in his lifts and tosses and Lin pounced on them to find the cross court winners and bag the opening game.

Facing a must-win situation in the second game, Sen raised the tempo of the rallies and induced mistakes from Lin. He won six straight points from 3-4 to make it 9-4 before the eventual champion started crawling back into the game. The Chinese Taipei shuttler engaged the tiring Sen into long rallies and started to take control.

With Lin earning a match point at 20-19, Sen threw everything at Lin to save the first match point but it was not to be for the Indian as his opponent wrapped the title on second match point.

"Yes, I think it was a good match today. The first game was, I think he was a better player, but in the second game I could have finished off better. But I'm happy with the way I played throughout the week," Lakshya said later. "I'm feeling emotional right now, thinking about the match. But overall, lots of positive things today," he added.

Lakshya's defeat meant that Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) remain the only Indians to have won the prestigious title, while Prakash Nath (1947) and Saina Nehwal (2015) had come closest with runner-up finishes before Lakshya's two final appearances.

Sen had a remarkable campaign nevertheless. He packed off world number one Shi Yuqi 23-21, 19-21, 21-17 in the opening round, before beating Ng Ka Long Angus 21-19, 21-23, 21-10 to enter the quarter-finals.

The world number 12 then got the better of China's sixth-seeded Li Shifeng by a 21-13, 21-16 margin to storm into the last four. In the semis, the world number 12 braved blisters, blood and fatigue to prevail over Victor Lai 21-16, 18-21, 21-15 in an epic 97-minute battle.