India’s star badminton player Lakshya Sen has performed brilliantly in the Paris Olympics 2024 and has confirmed his place in the semi-finals of the men’s singles. Lakshya Sen defeated Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 in the quarter-final match. For the first time an Indian badminton player has reached the semi-finals of the men’s singles at the Olympic Games. Now Lakshya would like to secure at least a silver medal by winning the semi-final match.
22-year-old Lakshya Sen will face Tokyo Olympics 2020 champion Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals. Viktor is currently ranked second in the world rankings and has won the World Championship twice. On the other hand, India’s Lakshya Sen is ranked 22. The semi-final match between Lakshya and Axelsen is to be played on August 4 (Sunday) at 3.30 pm Indian time. After the defeat of PV Sindhu along with the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, all hopes in badminton at the Paris Olympics are now pinned on Lakshya.
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This should be the h2h record of both the players
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However, the semi-final match is not going to be easy for Lakshya Sen. So far eight matches have been played between Axelsen and Lakshya, out of which the Danish shuttler won seven. Lakshya could defeat Axelsen only on one occasion. Lakshya’s only win against Axelsen came in the German Open in 2022, in which he won the match by winning the third game 22-20. This was two years ago, but this can give Lakshya confidence that Axelsen is not a big challenge for him.
If we look at it, the last match between Lakshya Sen and Viktor Axelsen was in Singapore Open earlier this year. Both of them met in the Round-32 of that tournament. Then Axelsen won the match 21-13, 16-21, 21-13 in a match that lasted three games. Another good news for Lakshya is that this year Axelsen has not been in that much form. He got eliminated early in some major tournaments.
Viktor Axelsen and Lakshya Sen are going to give it their all on this big stage. Axelsen is adept at fast exchanges at the net, drop shots and big smashes from deep in the court. Axelsen also loves shot-making. This helps him stay in the rally and control the rallies rather than playing defensively.
Lakshya Sen will have to give his 100 percent against Viktor. The game that Lakshya showed against Chou Tien Chen, he will have to repeat it in this match as well. There is no doubt that Lakshya is capable of doing this. He is one of the best defensive players in the world. The combination of defense and attack that Lakshya showed against Chou was excellent. The crosscourt smash from left to right worked really well for Lakshya in the quarter-finals.
Both the players have trained together
Lakshya Sen was not included in the Indian team for the Thomas Cup this year. After this, Lakshya trained with the former world number-1 player. Lakshya’s coach Vimal Kumar had revealed this. Vimal said, ‘When Lakshya came back, he mentioned Victor’s professional attitude. Like how intense his training sessions were and how focused he was during training. These were the things that were really eye-opening for Lakshya.’
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)