All England Open 2022 Live: Lakshya Sen vs Viktor AxelsenAll England Open Badminton Championships 2022 Finals Live: World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen showed nerves of steel as he stunned defending champion Lee Zii Jia to book a maiden final berth in the All England Badminton Championships.
Sen is now up against world number one and reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and goes into the contest with a 1-4 head-to-head record. The lone win for the world number 11 Indian against the Danish player had come in their last meeting at the German Open, where Sen overcame him in three games.
The young shuttler is now only the fourth Indian men’s singles player to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after Prakash Nath, Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand. Considered a child prodigy, Sen is now just a step away from emulating his mentor Padukone.
Sen beat Lee Zii Jia prominently and breathtakingly at 20-19 and other monster big, important points in the semis of the All England. (Twiiter/SAI Media)
There is that tight-lipped, blasé eyed Emoji on the smiley page of most phones. Or a memory filament of a yellow-clad captain (in blue too) in control of his universe in cricket. It’s that rare un-Indian face in sport because it’s patently unemotional – with a nonplussed bearing, living nowhere, but in that moment, unaffected by what’s gone by, unruffled by what is to come. It’s that stillness before a 10.8 of India’s Olympic gold from a Beijing Monday morning, not calling attention to the trigger finger. In badminton, it’s the Lakshya lull, moments before young Sen’s storming of success. (Read More)