Lakshya Sen wins from behind with this message: Never write me off
Lakshya Sen celebrates after defeating Lee Zii Jia in the semifinals of the 2022 All England Championships BWF/Badminton Photo
1:30 PM ET
Lungs of iron. Nerves of steel. Guts that won't give up. Throw in all the clichés you want, Lakshya Sen has got 'em all. It's been a twenty-one year wait for an Indian man to step into a final at the All England. He's here. Lakshya took down defending champion Lee Zii Jia, 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in Saturday's semifinals.
The prospect looked wobbly for a bit in the heart-stopping third game:
Lakshya is trailing, he's just gifted a short lift to Zii Jia - world No 7, towering at the other end in his sleeveless shirt. The lift is lush with possible angle options for the Malaysian to put away. There's nothing he loves more. With a hint of a smirk he smokes it across, a 397 kmph winner. 12-16. A handy four point lead. Zii Jia looks smug, he swivels away from the net, looks at his coach and slow-pumps both his arms in celebration.
The Indian admonishes himself for the idiocy. The net must be brought back into play, he tells himself. He lures his opponent with a tight spinning net shot, the Malaysian responds with a loose lift that balloons wide of the sideline on Lakshya's backhand side. The Indian had sniffed blood. He challenged him to another net duel, this time Zii Jia's forehand dribble obstinately refuses to go over. 13-16. Lakshya is now talking to himself. It's only three points, he's scaled bigger walls and wider gulfs before. The athlete's mind in such moments - blood-gushing, ropes of nerves thrashing within, must be a crazy place. The lead is safe no more.
'The athlete’s mind in such moments – blood-gushing, ropes of nerves thrashing within, must be a crazy place.' JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Zii Jia's temperament slides from rampaging to tentative. He tries to shoo Lakshya away from the net, but the Indian stubbornly plants himself. Zii Jia crashes two successive returns into the net, and pushes Lakshya into his deep forehand pocket. Lakshya responds with a cross court that dunks itself into the net. Zii Jia believes he's back, and nods to himself.
The net returns to play. Lakshya picks up a tight spinning net shot from Zii Jia at the bottom end of the net, and holds it for a nanosecond and pretends he's about to lift. The Malaysian loosens his sniper-focus from the net, moves two steps back expecting the shuttle to sail over, and just then Lakshya scrapes the shuttle over the net, sending it trickling down. The Malaysian scrambles, takes a one-step lunge, tries to get his racket under but it's gone. Lakshya now one point away, 16-17. Zii Jia can't believe his rotten luck.
Lee Zii Jia was unable to hold his advantage over Lakshya Sen in the decider Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images
The Malaysian sends a return skimming the backline to pick up a point and Lakshya closes down the net and draws level with a hop-skip kill. 18-18. Their body language is disparate. Lakshya rushes forward to set up attacks, leaving Zii Jia to find answers to them. One growing in belief that he can see this off in the clutch, the other not so sure of what he's up against anymore.
Zii Jia leaks a point again at the net, his reflexes are shaky, and Lakshya has him by the scruff. The Indian puts away a flat drive from the net, while his opponent stranded miles away, swats at the air to bring up match point. A return that goes long, hands the serve back to Zii Jia, who pushes Lakshya to the back of the court. The Indian pulls the punches close together - a smash followed by a rushing kill and the already-harried defending champion is gob-smacked. His campaign has ended a day early and he probably didn't quite see him coming.
'The already-harried defending champion is gob-smacked. His campaign has ended a day early and he probably didn’t quite see him coming' BWF, Badminton Photo
The manner in which Lakshya turned around the third game from 12-16 down, with his street smarts and a cool head, is testament to his growing legend of character. After a comfortable first game, he was run ragged by Zii Jia in the next. The Malaysian dispatched him to all corners of the court, sending him bending, chasing, panting, testing his legs and patience. The Indian's touch at the net floundered and he gave away a bunch of points to throw away the second game.
Until the midway point of the decider it looked like Zii Jia was still safe behind the wheel. Until Lakshya did Lakshya things and turned desperation into belief, and an unfavourable scoreline into a certain win.
Lakshya will now play either Viktor Axelsen or Chou Tien Chen for the title. He beat one of them last week and has never faced the other before. For a 20-year old who began carving his way on the pandemic-truncated tour only two years ago, the last six months have been an almighty hustle - he's broken into the top 10, taken down a bunch of fearsome names and counting this week, has five top-three finishes from four months.
Pullela Gopichand was the last Indian to bring home the All England trophy in 2001.
No matter what Sunday holds, tonight Lakshya will be dreaming with eyes wide open.
Lakshya Sen produced an incredible comeback in the decider against Lee Zii Jia to pull off his greatest victory ever
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