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Lakshya Sen mounted a outstanding comeback to grow to be the primary male Indian shuttler to qualify for the singles semifinals on the Olympic Video games, outwitting Chinese language Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in an intense battle, right here on Friday. The 22-year-old from Almora fought his coronary heart out towards the world quantity 11 Taiwanese after dropping the primary recreation to ultimately prevail 19-21 21-15 21-12 within the males’s singles quarterfinal that lasted 75 minutes. PV Sindhu and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had misplaced their respective matches on Thursday to bow out of the Video games.
The shock lack of the lads’s doubles pair had dented India’s badminton marketing campaign closely however Sen offered it a contemporary lease of life.
Sen bettered the performances of Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth who had made the quarterfinals in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
“I believe that is one thing that I’ve ever dreamt of. It feels actually good,” Sen advised reporters after his 75-minute slugfest with Chou.
“There may be a whole lot of work to do now, now it’s the actual take a look at. I now have 48 hours to get well and prepare for the following match. I’ve to provide my 100%.
“He was robust on the web, so I attempted to open up the sport,” he mentioned when requested in regards to the constant cross-court photographs he performed.
For 34-year-old Chou, who was recognized with colorectal most cancers in 2023, it was yet one more quarterfinal end on the Olympics.
Sen as soon as once more went into the match as an underdog, having misplaced 4 occasions in final 5 conferences towards the Taiwanese, a former world quantity 2. 4 of these matches had gone to 3 video games and the Indian was ready for the lengthy haul.
There was little or no to distinguish between the 2 as they engaged in a bodily battle.
Lengthy rallies have been the order of the day as each gamers moved nicely on the court docket, returning virtually all the pieces they have been throwing at one another.
The Indian misplaced preliminary factors on his return from the forecourt and commenced making extra cross-court photographs. Each time he trailed, Sen discovered a solution to stage the rating, which moved from 2-5 to 5-5 after which 15-15.
Sen took a three-point lead within the neck-and-neck battle when Chou despatched a backhand lengthy, netted a return and in between the Indian discovered a winner on the left of his rival.
The Taiwanese then mounted a comeback, logging three ferocious returns to make it 18-all. A backhand error from Sen gave Chou a mini-lead which he consolidated with a winner on the left of Sen.
Sen saved a recreation level however Chou didn’t let slip the following likelihood, firing an overhead smash to clinch the opening recreation.
The story was no completely different within the second recreation, which once more was a see-saw affair. Each gamers stored outsmarting one another to maintain snapping at one another’s heels.
At 7-7, there was a small interruption when Sen known as for a overview after a detailed line name. Chou’s return had landed in however Sen thought in any other case. The replay was not proven on the display screen and the umpire simply knowledgeable Sen that he had misplaced the overview.
It prompted Sen to get right into a dialog with the umpire however the Indian stored his cool and from 13-all he pulled away with 5 factors in a row. An error on the forecourt by the Taiwanese gave Sen a number of recreation factors. He transformed the second when his rival netted a return.
Not like the primary two video games, the decider unfolded in Sen’s favour with Chou making uncharacteristic unforced errors. His returns misplaced sting and he stored spraying the shuttle out whilst Sen performed at a excessive tempo together with his returns, smashes and the drop photographs discovering their mark.
Sen rapidly construct up a wholesome 16-11 lead, which Chou didn’t bridge. An excellent cross court docket smash gave Sen eight match-point probabilities and he sealed it when Chou hit the online after a flat change.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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