India’s Lakshya Sen lost 21-13, 17-21, 13-21 to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the semifinals of the Thailand Open. That marks the end of Indian participation in this year’s edition of this BWF Super 500 event.
The see-sawing match, which lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, saw Lakshya start with a mix of control and aggression that seemed to promise his period of being out-of-form maybe over. Having not made it to an individual BWF final since the All England Championships last year, Lakshya looked to be at his dancing best in the first game. He won the first point with a jumping down the line smash before zooming into a 5-2 lead through some superb net-play; an angled drop-plus-smash combo standing out (when he made it 4-2). After dropping a point, he once again raced to a substantial lead at 7-3, his quick transitions causing Vitidsarn all sorts of bother.
Buoyed by a loud home crowd, though, Vitidsarn hung on and through a couple of smashes of his own, made it 7-5. Lakshya then went on another run to make it 10-6, and then came the point that left everyone in the arena awe-struck to make it 11-6. Lakshya returned two Vitidsarn smashes before pushing down a smash of his own and then finishing the point with a backhand slap of a cross-court shot, mid-pirouette. It was showmanship of the best kind, and it seemed to stun Vitidsarn.
Aggressive net play and that trademark reflex-backed defense then saw Lakshya take a 14-10 lead that soon became 17-10 and then 21-13. With Lakshya on his A-game defensively Vitidsarn was forced to go for the margins and while many of his points count technically as unforced errors, they were in a way caused by the annoyingly persistent defence of Lakshya.
Lakshya then started the second game the way he had closed out the first, with a lunging smash at the net before a quick exchange of points saw the score move to 4-4. Lakshya then pulled away a little with those quick hands at the net forcing Vitidsarn into multiple errors, but a 7-5 lead was reeled back toi 7-7 as unforced errors crept into Lakshya’s game this time.
Then, while trailing 8-9, came a shot from Vitidsarn that seemed to change the mood of the match entirely. As the two exchanged several powerful smashes, Vitidsarn suddenly stopped and flicked the most outrageous drop – it horseshoed across the net and fell in an area impossible to reach. That tied the scores at 9-9, and then some incredible defensive of his own saw Vitidsarn go into the mid-game break 11-10 up.
With the crowd more vociferous than ever, he pulled out to a 13-10 lead, but Lakshya wasn’t going to lie down – and he tied it up quickly at 13-13 with some incredible defensive play, ending the last point with a drop-smash combo that left Vitidsarn flat-footed.
With Lakshya leading 15-14 came the point of the game as both retrieved smashes from impossible-looking angles, both exchanged a couple of smashes (each) at the face at the net… only for Lakshya to finish it off with a jumping overhand smash down the line. He held the lead till 17-16, when Vitidsarn went on a game-saving run. Smash, angled drop, unforced error, angled drop, unforced error and it was 21-17 to Vitidsarn.
With momentum clearly on his side, Vitidsarn went up 4-1 early in the third game through some aggressive badminton before Lakshya stirred and pulled it back to 5-5 with some powerful jump smashes. With two of the smoothest movers on the circuit trading blows, the crowd was really getting into at this point. Lakshya then took the lead for the first time in the game by making it 7-6 via another Vitidsarn error and he pressed it home to stretch the lead to 10-6. Vitidsarn, though, fought back to draw level before sending a clear long to make it 11-10 for Lakshya at the break.
“Remain calm” said Lakshya’s coach Anup Sridhar at the break… but there was nothing calm about Vitidsarn’s onslaught. The local favourite made it 13-11 with a shot of preposterous imagination, slicing a clear that dropped and kissed the line at the last moment, Lakshya left looking bewildered. And that was that as Vitidsarn zoomed into a 20-12 lead that he closed out a couple of points later with a Lakshya return floating well wide.
Vitidsarn will now face Hong Kong China’s Lee Cheuk Yie in the final.
