It was that same hurrying to get to the end-point, to hit one tempo and try to blaze his way out of trouble. Lakshya Sen has attempted to serve quickly, get the point done with, and almost swamp the opponent with badminton strokes for two years in a row now.
It once again failed to bring him a win, as he lost 21-17, 21-19 to World No. 1 Shi Yuqi. The last few times he tried exactly this at Paris, he had lost to Viktor Axelsen and Lee Zii Jia.
Sen conceded as much when speaking to BWF thereafter. “I had my chances but I was playing catch up. In the second especially it was close. I had to be patient most of the time but in the closing stages I tried to up the pace. I could’ve done better,” he told BWF after his 54 minute loss.
ALSO READ | As Lakshya Sen exits Paris, a definitive sign that a major shakeup is needed to reboot his career
Top seed Shi Yu Qi 🇨🇳 contests Lakshya Sen 🇮🇳 in the round of 64.#BWFWorldChampionships #Paris2025 pic.twitter.com/dK95lTJxtv
— BWF (@bwfmedia) August 25, 2025
The Top 20 player now must have felt a deja vu, given the Olympics which had begun remarkably well when he beat Jonatan Christie, crumbled into the bitterest end – a 4th place finish, even after he had the advantage at different points. “Tough memories from last year so coming into the stadium I had some doubts. But I was there to win,” Sen told BWF.
Sen’s defensive rigour made it into a match, but Shi Yuqi is perhaps the last person who will get rushed into making mistakes. The trick is to vary pace, eschew patterns, not allow opponent to settle. But Sen opted for the predictable – not taking the breaks, not mixing up the pace, and most importantly not staying calmer – which used to be a feature of his game when he won Worlds bronze in 2021 and subsequently made All England finals.
But his technical limitations mean, opponents can snap him shut with their big smashes, and Sen tends to droop shoulders when he doesn’t win the sensational exchanges. Towards the end from point 17 onwards in Set 1 and at 18 in the second, Sen attempted to blitz to the finish line. Such mad scrambles rarely ever yield wins, against top players.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
