Birmingham: India’s World No. 11 Lakshya Sen became only the fourth Indian player since Prakash Nath, Prakash Padukone, and Pullela Gopichand to ever reach the All England final after beating defending champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in a grueling 76 minutes semi-final match on Saturday.
Although the Utilita Arena Birmingham arena was packed with eager Malaysian fans who clapped and shouted Lee Zii Jia’s name, the 20-year-old Indian remained calm, and the screaming from the crowd seemingly didn’t affect him one bit.
Sen took the first game 21-13 after Lee Zii Jia committed a lot of unforced errors. In the second game, Lee successfully cut down his errors and quickly raced to a 16-5 lead before closing out the game 21-12. Lee had a handsome 16-12 lead in the decider, but Sen showed great tactical acumen and mental toughness, winning one point at a time to stage a remarkable comeback to beat Lee 21-19 in the decider.
Out of the three previous Indian players who had made the All England final, only Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand had won the tournament in 1980 and in 2001 respectively. Indian fans are definitely hoping Sen could bring back the prestigious All England trophy after a 21-year wait.
“Towards the end, I was just trying to focus on the match, and winning one point at a time,” said Sen.
“I am happy I won the game and will go back to rest and will go all out tomorrow,” added Sen.
Highlights of the Lee Zii Jia vs. Lakshya Sen All England semi-final match:
Sen will meet Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the final. Sen and Axelsen were engaged in a pulsating German Open semi-final encounter last Saturday, where the Indian came back from trailing 9-16 in the decider to ultimately beat the Tokyo Olympics champion 21-13, 12-21, 22-20. It would be interesting to see if Axelsen could exact the revenge in the All England final on Sunday.
Axelsen defeated Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan 21-13, 21-15 on Saturday to advance to his fourth consecutive All England final.
