At 21-19, 20-17, Lakshya Sen had three match points to close out the contest and enter the quarter-finals. The top Indian shuttler wasted all three chances before getting a fourth opportunity at 21-20. The 24-year-old let go of that chance too as Angus Ng Ka Long clawed back to push the match into the decider.
We’re kind of used to Sen’s meltdowns. Remember 2024 Paris Olympics? Sen then had squandered two fantastic opportunities of winning Indian badminton’s fourth Olympic medal. He went on to lose both the semi-final and the bronze playoff from winning positions, ending a brilliant run.
On Thursday, Sen walked into Arena Birmingham confident after causing the upset of the tournament two days earlier when he ousted top seed, reigning world champion and holder Shi Yu Qi of China. But he was on the verge of slipping again against a player he had never beaten in three previous meetings.
But the world No.12 was able to find his composure and hold his nerve to turn the tables on Long to clinch the men’s singles second round 21-19, 21-23, 21-10 in an hour and 21 minutes and enter the last eight at the All England Open Badminton Championships.
“He displayed great mental strength in the third game after losing that heart-breaking second from a comfortable position,” Sen’s coach U Vimal Kumar said. “Hope he continues (like this). He’s (Angus) not an easy player to play and for Lakshya he should have finished in two. At that level, the margin is very small and I am happy Lakshya stayed strong.”
Playing his first match against Long in three years, Sen started in aggressive fashion to keep his nose ahead for most of the opening game. Despite leading 19-16, Sen made silly errors to let Long draw level at 19-19.
But Sen, who reached the final four years ago at the Super 1000 competition, controlled the drift better to win the next two points and take the lead. It looked like Sen would breeze through the second game when he opened up a 11-4 lead but Long slowly clawed back. With a very strong side drift at Arena Birmingham, Sen wasn’t sure whether the shuttle was going out or not on many occasions which led him to play late shots, handing the advantage to the Hong Kong shuttler at the net.
From leading 19-14, regular errors from the Sen allowed the 31-year-old Long to save four match points to take the contest into the decider. But after the change of ends, Sen was determined to not let go of another opportunity as he took control early with powerful cross court smashes, racing away to an 11-5 lead. Some brilliant down-the-line smashes and solid net play helped Sen reach his fifth match point at 20-9. Long saved one but the gap was too big for him to recover as Sen closed the contest on his sixth attempt.
“Credit to Long who made a solid comeback in the second game. I just didn’t play freely towards the end of the second game and gave too many easy shots for him to kill. But I was prepared again in the third game to just go all out. Happy with the way I played in the third game,” said Sen.
“Tactically I was playing the right game in the first two games. It’s just the last few points I didn’t stick to the plan and committed too many errors. It was important to just switch off, forget the second game and just play the third with the same game plan which was working.”
Sen will now face Chinese sixth seed Li Shi Feng, who won the All England Open in 2023. The world No.6, who won the Asian Games gold three years back, has an even 7-7 record against Sen.
Sen is the last Indian alive in the tournament after Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto retired from their mixed doubles second round while trailing 19-21, 8-9 against Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet.
