At the end of Game 1, Lakshya Sen had his left arm up in the air. The shuttle had just kissed the top of the net cord, dangled there for a few milliseconds, before eventually dropping dead in front of Chou Tien Chen. If this had happened in a tennis match, that raised hand would have been an apology. But not so often in badminton. The players would tell you they train for these soft touches from close to the tape, because that takes skill too. And so Lakshya celebrated. It had, after all, been a sensational opening game that he had won 23-21.
At the end of Game 2, Lakshya had the shuttle kissing the net cord again, and it fell in his favour again. This time, he turned around, with a mix of relief and joy because he had just come back from three game points down at 17-20, winning five points in a row to complete 23-21, 22-20 win in 56 minutes against the Chinese Taipei veteran. It took Lakshya to his first final since the Syed Modi Super 300 last November. The match might have ended in straight games but it wasn’t straightforward, as the players provided a throwback to Paris 2024, where the Indian had won in three games, in another match filled with highlight-worthy rallies. Lakshya next faces a familiar foe in Li Shi Feng for the 14th time in a rivalry that dates back to their junior days.
“It was a very competitive match, and credit to Chou as well, he played really well. At every point of the game, we went toe to toe, whether it was love-all or 20-all,” Lakshya told BWF after the match. “The intensity of the match was very high. Happy with the way I kept my calm in the closing stages. A few lucky net cords as well for me… a lucky day. He was well prepared for the strokes that I was playing, both of us had played so many times in the past, so I knew the rallies were going to be long. Even if you hit it from the mid-court, you have to expect the shuttle to come back. I was prepared for everything.”
Indeed, the first point was a good indication of how ready Lakshya was. It brought a wry smile from Chou as the Indian guessed correctly at where his opponent’s smash was headed and played a lovely defensive backhand block into the open court for a winner. The Indian held an 11-7 advantage heading into the break, working some good angles with his half-smashes and flat drives.
But Chou started to close the gap after the interval. At 10-12, Lakshya once again read the Chou smash and was waiting for the block, but this time it wasn’t into an empty corner and the latter killed off the point. A crosscourt lift from Lakshya sailed wide, and in the blink of an eye, the Indian’s hard-earned mid-game lead had vanished, 12-12.
The inability to arrest these mini-slides has cost Lakshya in recent times. Another one of those sharp defensive blocks, this time from his forehand side, saw Lakshya lead 15-13, but he gave the serve right back with a service fault on height.
Then there was drama at 17-15. It looked like Lakshya had a double hit at the net and he almost stopped playing the rally, but there was no call forthcoming from the officials, so both players carried on. Chou eventually sent a lift long and he immediately went to protest to the umpires, who stood firm on their call. The side-on replay didn’t show any evident mistake, but in real time, it did look very much like a double hit.
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To his credit, Chou quickly regrouped to win the next couple of points to make it 17-18. At 19-19, no less, Lakshya and Chou played out a 51-shot rally that had the crowd ooh-ing and aah-ing. Chou somehow kept the rally going early on with a pirouette and defensive blocks, then it was Lakshya hustling all over the court before drawing the error from his opponent.
In the second game, Chou started like he was hurt by how the opening game ended, opening up a 7-4 lead. But Lakshya started closing the gap, first with a down-the-line smash for 5-7 and then changing it up from a nearly identical position, by going crosscourt with the inside-out smash for 7-7, both classy winners.
Back-to-back errors from Lakshya gave Chou an 11-10 lead at the interval, and the 35-year-old kept Lakshya’s defence busy mixing up his smashes. When he hit a ridiculously good round-the-head smash from an awkward position, where the shuttle caught the line perfectly, a decider seemed imminent. Then came a big miss from Lakshya that almost confirmed it. After playing a couple of great net shots and a crosscourt smash, he charged forward for the kill but overdid it to send the shuttle long. Lakshya, however, quickly regrouped after that dreadful error to reel off five straight points and make it to the title clash. The tape on top of the net had one final say.
