Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen has suddenly been the talk of the country right now with some sensational performances this year. He became the fifth Indian to reach the finals of the All England Open. Although he settled for the silver medal against Viktor Axelsen, there were plenty of people who were impressed with the young shuttler. He showed great fight, determination and character against the Olympic champion.
Therefore former India shuttlerDinesh Khanna was very happy with Sen’s performances in the All England Open. He praised the youngster and felt that reaching the finals was a big enough feat for the young shuttler who is only going to get better.
“For me, reaching the finals is a very big achievement. The final clash was really great. Each and every rally played in the game was very tough. As you know, Axelsen is an Olympic champion, he is world’s no 1 player but the way Lakshya Sen played against him and gave a tough fight, it was really commendable,” Dinesh Khanna told ANI.
Khanna highlighted how Axelsen was defeated by Lakshya two weeks ago at the German Open and therefore he believes that the Danish shuttler came prepared to take the game to Sen and it worked well for him. He also shared how Sen has beaten some of the best players in the world in the last couple of tournaments and will hope to keep up with the consistency and rhythm.
“Two weeks back, Lakshya had defeated Axelsen in the German Open. That’s why Axlesen came with full preparations to compete with Lakshya. If we combine these two tournaments, then we can see that Lakshya has defeated the world’s best four players. This shows the consistency and unique style of his game,” Khanna added.
Axelsen defeated Sen by 21-10, 21-15 at Utilita Arena in Birmingham. he was fully authoritative in this defeat as the match lasted for only 53 minutes.
Despite being very feisty against some of the best shuttlers in the world, Sen holds a poor 1-5 head to head record against the Danish shuttler. So he will look to improve that aspect of his game as he will more often face Axelsen in the latter stages of these tournaments. Had Sen won the finals he would have been only the third Indian man to clinch the title after Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand.
