India’s Lakshya Sen made history on Friday by reaching the men’s singles semi-finals at the Paris 2024 badminton tournament, overcoming an Olympic bronze medallist after a tough match. Unseeded Sen defeated Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei, the Tokyo 2020 bronze winner and 12th seed, in a thrilling three-game match with scores of 19-21, 21-15, 21-12.
🇮🇳🔥 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚! An absolutely brilliant performance from Lakshya Sen as he becomes the first Indian male shuttler to reach the semi-final in the men’s singles event at the Olympics.
🏸 A very evenly contested match between the two players but Lakshya’s resilience… pic.twitter.com/FeD9ZhXcwD
— India at Paris 2024 Olympics (@sportwalkmedia) August 2, 2024
Sen is the first Indian to reach the men’s singles semi-finals at the Summer Games, surpassing the achievements of Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth, who reached the quarter-finals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, respectively.
Chou, ranked 11th in the world, initially led 5-2, holding off Sen’s attacks. Despite some strong plays from Sen, Chou maintained a 15-11 lead. Sen fought back with six consecutive points, but Chou narrowly won the first game 21-19.
अपने Lakshya की ओर… हमारा Lakshya Sen 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/ykmU2lTYL8
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) August 2, 2024
In the second game, Sen kept pace with Chou, leading 11-10 at the break and then adopting an aggressive strategy to secure an 18-13 advantage, eventually winning the game to force a decider.
In the final game, Sen surged ahead to a 9-4 lead as Chou began to tire and make errors, allowing Sen to gain eight match points and ultimately secure the victory.
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Lakshya Sen, a bronze medallist at the World Championships, topped his men’s singles group and defeated world No. 4 Jonatan Christie. He also beat fellow Indian HS Prannoy in the round of 16 on his Olympic debut.
Sen will next face the winner of the quarter-final match between defending champion Victor Axelsen of Denmark and 10th-seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
