Lakshya Sen remains India’s sole hope at the 2024 All-England Badminton Championships as he takes on Indonesian star Jonatan Christie in the semifinal.
This is Lakshya’s second consecutive semifinal after the French Open last week – a far cry from his run of seven straight first-round exits two months ago.
The 22-year-old has already reached the All-England final once before (in 2022, where he lost to world no. 1 Viktor Axelsen) – as an unheralded 20-year-old breaking onto the BWF circuit. Lakshya will hope to repeat his feat, but ahead of him stands a player he has beaten only once in three attempts – and that was in a team event. The two players last met in the 2023 Japan Open semifinal, which Lakshya lost 15-21, 21-13, 16-21.
However, Lakshya has been in seed-killing form of late, stunning world no. 3 Anders Antonsen in the round of 16, before another comeback win over Lee Zii Jia in the quarterfinal (20-22, 21-16, 21-19).
Also Read: Lakshya Sen reaches All-England semifinal by returning to basics
Ahead of his quarterfinal win, Lakshya had underlined his ultimate goal is to win the tournament (while taking it one match at a time):
“I think to keep the Olympic qualification in mind – it is a bit more extra added pressure, all this extra added attention to this tournament. But for me, the All-England is my dream – and I have been there once in the finals [in 2022]. As of now, I just want to take it one match at a time, and my only goal here is to better my result from 2022.”
Should he get past Christie, Lakshya will face one of Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (fifth seed who stunned world no. 1 Viktor Axelsen in the quarterfinal) or unseeded Christo Popov (who became the first Frenchman to reach the semifinal in 125 years of All-England) in the final.
His ultimate aim will be to end India’s 23-year drought at the tournament, with Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) the only Indians to have won the All-England Championship before.
You can catch ESPN’s live coverage of the game, below:
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