Lakshya Sen became only the fourth Indian men’s player to reach the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships men’s singles final on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Indian shuttler has beaten Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the defending champion, in a roller-coaster three-game match to book a place in the final of the BWF Super 1000 tournament. 

Sen defeated Jia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 to confirm his place in the final.

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At
one time, Lakshya Sen was trailing 16-18 in the third game and looked like he was out of
the contest. However, Sen won four straight points from that point to reach two
match points before converting the second. With this result, he reached the
final of the All England Open and has a chance to emulate the feat of Prakash
Padukone (1983) and Pullela Gopichand (2001).

To date, only four Indian men’s singles players – Prakash Nath (runner-up, 1947) Prakash Padukone ( champion, 1980 and runner-up in 1981), Pullela Gopichand ( champion, 2001) and Lakshya Sen (2022)-  reached the final of the All England Open. 

Among the women’s singles specialists, only Saina Nehwal reached the final in 2015. 

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As Lakshya Sen reached the final, he will now have a chance to emulate the feat of Padukone and Gopichand and bring back the laurel to India after over two decades.

Sensational form

Sen has been in sensational form in the last six months as he secured his maiden World Championships medal in Spain in December and first Super 500 title at India Open in January and then claimed a runner-up finish at the German Open last week.

At the German Open, he defeated the likes of Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand, fourth seed Anthony Ginting of Indonesia and his experienced compatriot HS Prannoy in straight games. Despite being a Super 300 event, the tournament had attracted almost all the top players as they were treating it as a warm-up for the All England Open.

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One match that established him as the potential star for the future was the one against Tokyo Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen. Axelsen had won all their four earlier encounters in straight games, and this time Sen took the game to the World No.1 shuttler’s court and registered an empathic win.

At the All England Open pre-quarterfinal, Lakshya Sen had upset World No. 3, Anders Antonsen, in straight games. 

In the semi-final, his comeback victory against Lee Zii Jia would certainly stand out among his recent remarkable wins.