Lakshya Sen won gold medal in Commonwealth Games 2022© AFP
Rising star of Indian badminton Lakshya Sen made a comeback from the match against Malaysia’s Tje Yong Ng in the men’s singles final. Lakshya won the match 19-21, 21-9, 21-16. It has been a break out season for the youngster, which saw him win bronze at the World Championships and also finish as runners-up in the prestigious All England Championships.
Lakshya, a Youth Olympic Games silver medalist, played a big role in India’s historic Thomas Cup win earlier this year.
Sen remained behind for the majority of the first game but remained close to the Malaysian who accounted for world champions U Keen Loh and Kidambi Srikanth in their last two matches.
Sen made it 16-19 to 19-18 before Yong produced back-to-back forehand winners to score game points. Sen called the baseline call wrong after a fierce rally to benefit Yong.
The second game was one-way traffic after Sen’s lead 11–9 at the interval. The Indian player made it to the final with 12 consecutive points after the break. Yong made several unforced errors and looked like he wanted to conserve energy for the third game.
Sen put up his best attack in the decider and led till the end. Yong tried his best to make a comeback but Sen remained unstoppable. He converted his first match point after a long rally, leading to a frenzied celebration that saw him throw his racket into the stands.
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“It was tense in the beginning, I had to work really hard. Yong also played a great tournament. Congratulations to him too,” Sen said after the tough fight.
(with PTI inputs)
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