Their Olympic dreams didn’t culminate into a medal. But there’s a whole four years in between two Games when badminton stays terrifically interesting. When the likes of Lakshya Sen and Chou Tien Chen, each more tenacious than the other, turn an ordinary Super 500 Sydney spring semifinal, into something that’s better than absolute cinema. Lakshya Sen turned Live Sport into silverscreen stuff that’s better than once-in-4-years silverware, as he defeated Chou in a 85 minute thriller.
He reached the second final of 2025 after Hong Kong, but is still searching for the first title of a very difficult season, where at No 12, he failed to qualify for the World Tour Finals. But that’s where Sen and Chou light up badminton – they make it irresistible to watch, never mind that it’s an end-season competition with little at stake.
They even made the mid-set, badminton’s unofficial snack-break for watchers, the crescendo of the match, as the first set and decider were reduced to footnotes.
You could talk about the slap-drives in Sen’s 17-21, 24-22, 21-16 win, a very Bangalore-coded shot that those from the Padukone academy are casually rattling off. The outstretched racquet smothers skimmingly over the shuttle to send it cross and very flat. But Sen and Chou made the diving retrieves far more interesting.
Defense alone can’t win you badminton matches, as Sen has painfully learnt. But it sure can buy you time to tire out a very accurate, powerful opponent and take matters into a decider, where Sen had shredded Chou’s resolve by denying him a win in the second set.
The Taiwanese, 35 years old, but elegantly foxy and unfailingly accurate, has mastered the control game. Chou dictates in-rally pace, controls placement to front or back, straight or cross, and works angles like set squares of a geometry compass box. His first set win came despite Sen not erring, not fading out, not giving up, only because Chou stood at the front court and comandeered a symphony of criss-crossing shuttles with his patented shuttle control.
But the tone of the match was set at Chou leading 19-15 in the opener. A 44 shot rally, offered a glimpse into just how determined Sen was to play very high quality strokes at a very fast clip, with very bull-headed intent. As the comms said, Sen needed to tell himself to ‘never give up’ while Chou had a ‘living tattoo, a living cheer meme’ in his coach-trainer Victoria Lao, his animated courtside one-woman team. In that scarcely believable rally over 22 shots Sen played, he told Chou that his low pick-up defensive retrieves and clear headed anticipation meant he could cover the court, in all dimensions, and the shuttle wouldn’t stop coming back.
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Chou is perhaps the most cerebral and skilled player on the Tour, and had a counter to Sen’s defiance. He would not only make the Indian dive across his body on the backhand corners, he would ensure the next shuttle was far on the opposite flank.
This was one of those matches when accuracy from both players was guaranteed – errors not blighting the tempo. The number of backline corner lobs and floating clears that Sen nailed pinpoint, was outrageous. Chou’s precision on the short cross smashes was equally impressive. His superpower is deceptively simple — he can hit more overhead strokes with variety and control, back to back, and the arms don’t tire. Sen’s superpower is he can defend one shot more than Chou flings at him, retrieving real low.
But the second-set stole the show.
Sen trailed 4-7, then made ground at 9-9. Because these two are so talented, they can literally mimic each other and it was Sen in the mid set, as he used Chou’s tactic of making opponent twist and turn, by going for the flanks. Without mistakes. Sen took the mid-interval lead at 11-9. Chou wasn’t built to make life easy for his opponents.
At 12-10, while beginning to tire, Chou dug from his reserves the patience to let go two opportunities for a kill, before smashing the third. Snapping at Sen’s heels, Chou went 15-13, 17-14, before he levelled at 17-all. One incredible Sen point for 15-13, saw Sen put in three diving retrieves at three separate corners, then scurry to the net and track back next second for a back court straight smash kill.
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The mileage in Sen’s feet, and palms (given he is on all fours often and bouncing back on feet with catapult elasticity) can be a researcher’s dissertation, given he is shorter than most of the top opponents, even at 5’10. But he neutralizes that advantage with his read on the game, and Chou had to stitch together clever ways and work hard, crank up power, to get his points. Still, he reached 20-18, when Sen floated one long.
Sen aced a back corner toss-drop to go 19-20, and drew out a smash error to stay afloat – when 2 points from exiting. A tight dribble gave Chou another match point, but the Sen defense put such massive pressure on the Taiwanese that he forced Chou to again go long. 21-all. Catching him on the forehand corner once more, Sen went ahead 22-21. At 23-22, Sen played that slap-drive once more, and the shot always travels awkward for opponents, coming into their torso flat. Snatching at the shuttle and exhausted because Sen could just not be stubbed out, Chou finally succumbed to a decider.
That second set with his back to the corner, took the wind out of the Chou sails, and a 21-16 was inevitable, even if the Taiwanese stayed defiant in defeat, after being down 12-20. Separated by 10 years in age, there’s a barmy brilliance to how both Sen and Chou approach badminton – they seem to play better for pride than for the prize, to win a point, than to make one.
