All England Open 2024: Lakshya Sen goes down to Jonatan Christie in the semifinals
Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen narrowly missed out on creating history by going down in the semifinals of the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 on Saturday, March 16. The 22-year-old lost to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 12-21, 21-10, 15-21 in a thrilling three-setter in the men’s singles category.
Sen was India’s only remaining player in the tournament after two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, the World No. 1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and the women’s doubles duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa crashed out in the Round of 16.
A closer look at the result of Lakshya Sen’s semifinal at the All England Open 2024:
Lakshya Sen's semifinal encounter against World No. 9 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, marked by long and intense rallies. The match witnessed both players engaging in several fast-paced exchanges, with neither willing to give an inch to the other.
The first set saw an initial see-saw battle, but after the scores were level at 6-6, Sen, who seemed nervous, started to make some mistakes. Christie capitalized on them to surge ahead, letting the Indian take only six more points before wrapping up the set at 21-12.
The interval after the first set saw Lakshya Sen receive several words of advice from his coaches, Vimal Kumar and the former All England Open winner, Prakash Padukone.
Despite the initial setback from the first set, Sen quickly regained his composure and dominated proceedings in the second game. He took a commanding lead and was leading 17-4 even before the Indonesian could figure out what was happening. Christie managed to adapt and fight back, but it was too late, and Sen quickly sealed the second set 21-10.
The decisive third set saw Sen appear rejuvenated and full of energy. However, a grueling 63-shot rally at 6-4 left Sen visibly exhausted. Taking advantage of this, Christie continued to engage in longer rallies, forcing a mistake out of the Indian shuttler. Several unforced errors from the 22-year-old Sen saw Christie quickly reach match point.
Despite a late attempt at a comeback, Sen could only manage to reach 15 before the Indonesian won the last point and wrapped up the match. The final score of the grueling hour and eight-minute-long encounter was 12-21, 21-10, 15-21.
After his two back-to-back semifinal appearances, Lakshya Sen has earned a lot of important ranking points and should most likely have confirmed his place for the Paris Olympics when the final rankings are published at the end of the qualification period.