Birmingham (UK), March 20 20-year-old Lakshya Sen of India is all set for the match of his career so far - the final of the YONEX All-England Badminton tournament on Sunday day - versus the No. 1 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. While Axelsen is the favourite, Sen has become a dangerous adversary.
In the semi-final on Saturday, Sen upset the defending champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia to become the youngest Indian man to reach the last stage of the historic All-England Badminton championship, which was established in 1899. He won 21-13, 12-21, 21-19.
Sen, who is the world No. 11, said after his victory: "It's a dream and now there's one more match to go. I am focussed on one more match."
Looking back at the encounter, he reflected: "Towards the end I was just trying to play one point at a time and not thinking of other things, that I was about to make the final or anything like that."
Jia was fulsome in his tribute to his young opponent. "He was very good with his net play on the last few points."
"No problem," the Indian badminton sensation Sen responded every time his South Korean coach Yong Su-Yoo gave him a courtside pep talk during his semi-final match against Jia. He proceeded to execute the advice to pull off a remarkable result.
Sen, who is a product of a Bengaluru-based academy run by Prakash Padukone - the first Indian to win the All-England in 1980 - is clearly endowed with an all-round ability. He mixes power with touch. He defended skilfully against Jia's thunderbolt smashes, teased him with dribbles at the net and when opportunities arose, himself put away the shuttle with a searing overhead.
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