Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen missed out on winning the title in the final of his maiden All England Badminton Championships. Lakshya was the runner up of the tournament after losing in straight games to world number one Viktor Axelsen in the title match played on Sunday. Despite his defeat, he won the hearts of crores of Indians. This is the reason why Sachin Tendulkar and the country’s PM August 2, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged him by tweeting for him.
Only Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) have won the title for India so far. Lakshya, who was trying to become the third Indian to win the All England Championship title after him, suffered a 10-21, 15-21 loss to Axelsen of Denmark in the title match. This match lasted for 53 minutes.
Viktor Axelsen has shown that he is a master of the big matches. He put the target under pressure by taking a 5-0 lead early in the first game. After this, a rally of 61 shots was seen between both the players, in which the Danish player scored 9-2 by beating. After this, he was ahead 11-2 till the break.
Lakshya made good shots on a couple of occasions but the first game was completely dominated by Axelsen which he easily won in 22 minutes. Axelsen held a 4-2 lead in the second game as well but the goal soon leveled the score at 4-4. Axelsen scored four consecutive points to lead 8-4 and was leading 11-5 at the break.
Lakshya scored three consecutive points after the break but Axelsen did not give him a chance to return and soon reduced the score to 17-10. After this a rally of 70 shots was seen between the two in which Lakshya scored the points. Axelsen conceded seven match points with smashes, of which the goal was to defend only two. Earlier, Akini Yamaguchi of Japan defeated An Seong of Korea 21-15, 21-15 to win the women’s singles title.
Sen may have missed his goal but he won the hearts of crores of Indians. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar tweeted for him and wrote, ‘No one ever fails in life, you only get to learn from whether you win or lose. I am sure you must have learned a lot from this experience. Wishing you all the very best for the upcoming tournament.
At the same time, the Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi also congratulated the Indian shuttler despite the defeat. He wrote on the official Twitter account that, ‘We are proud of you Lakshya Sen. You did a great job at your game. You continued to fight. Best wishes for your future. I am sure you will continue to scale new heights of success.
It is worth noting that Lakshya was the fifth Indian shuttler, the fourth Indian male shuttler and the youngest Indian shuttler to reach the finals of this prestigious tournament. Prior to him, Prakash Nath in 1947, Prakash Padukone (winner) in 1980, Pullela Gopichand (winner) in 2001 and Saina Nehwal reached the finals of All England Badminton Championship in 2015.