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India’s Lakshya Sen progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympics males’s singles badminton competitors with a shocking straight-game win over Indonesia’s world quantity 4 Jonatan Christie within the last group match in Paris on Wednesday. The 22-year-old from Almora, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, displayed nice maturity and tactical acumen to outwit Christie, the reigning All England and Asian champion, 21-18 21-12 in what turned out to be a lop-sided contest. Sen is more likely to face compatriot HS Prannoy within the pre-quarterfinals. Prannoy will face Vietnam’s Le Duc Phat later within the day.
Sen had defeated Kevin Cordon, a Tokyo Olympics semifinalist, within the opening Group L match on Sunday which was “deleted” after his Guatemalan opponent pulled out resulting from a left elbow harm.
A gold medallist on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games, Sen beat Julien Carraggi of Belgium earlier than dealing with Christie.
The one time the Indian had defeated Christie was 4 years in the past on the Badminton Asia Workforce Championships and got here into this match with a dismal 1-4 head-to-head depend.
Nonetheless, Sen rose to the event on Wednesday and confirmed nice maturity as he went about his enterprise.
He tried to maintain the shuttle flat and goal the weak forehand of Christie, who regarded to decelerate the rallies and used his cross court docket photographs on the corners to bother the Indian, albeit with out a lot success.
Within the first sport, Christie opened up a 5-0 lead and shortly moved to 8-2. Nonetheless, Sen regrouped shortly, stored the shuttle flat and waited for his opponent to make errors.
It labored as he moved to 7-8 earlier than a thunderous forehand smash earned the Indian a slim one-point benefit.
Sen engaged Christie in quick and flat exchanges to maneuver to 14-12, and the latter slowed down the tempo with a gruelling rally, which he received with a push on the backline.
The Indonesian drew parity at 16-16 with a exact cross-court smash, which a diving Sen could not attain and shortly eked out a two-point lead at 18-16. A straight smash from Sen was adopted by a large smash from Christie, and it was 18-18.
An ideal flat push after which an unimaginable behind-the-back return in the course of the following rally gave Sen sport level and he transformed it simply to earn the bragging rights.
After the change of sides, Sen made some judgment errors on the backline as the 2 had been tied 3-3. However the Indian stored peppering the again court docket together with his pushes and smashes and performed at a excessive tempo. His reflex defence was additionally rock strong as he moved to 10-5.
One other error from Christie, and it was a five-point benefit for Sen on the midway mark. The Indian stored his opponent at bay with a barrage of strokes and did not permit him to return to the web.
The Indonesian made too many errors in desperation, lacking the strains typically as Sen moved to 18-12. One other flat trade ended on the internet as Sen inched nearer to the road.
One other lengthy rally ended with an extended shot for the Indonesian as Sen grabbed eight match factors and when the Indonesian despatched one other to the web, the Indian rejoiced.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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