Lakshya Sen beat Malaysia’s Tze Young NG 19-21 21-9 21-16 on Monday to win the gold medal in badminton men’s singles at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
Sen’s win sealed India’s second gold medal in badminton at the Birmingham Games. The first gold was won by P.V. Sindhu in women’s singles earlier today.
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The first game was a closely fought contest. After trailing 15-18 at point, Sen won four straight points to eke out 19-18 in front. The World No. 42, however, halted the Indian’s progress just in time to win the game 21-19.
Long rallies, feather-touched drop shots and dogged defence continued in the second game as Lakshya Sen fought to stay in the contest. The Indian edged out an 11-9 lead at the midway break. When the shuttlers returned to court, the Indian welcomed his opponent with a barrage of winners. Sen won ten straight points to win the second game 21-9.
With the momentum swinging in his favour at end the second game, Sen was able to hold an advantage in the decider. He stayed a step ahead of Young and led 11-7 at the 60-second interval. The Malaysian, who was nursing a scrape on his knee, tried to come back into the match but Sen closed the game 21-16 to secure the gold medal.
Tze Young settled for a silver but will go back with an impressive haul from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Not only did he win the gold medal in the mixed team event, Young beat former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth in three games on Sunday to set up the summit clash with Sen.
India has now won 20 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games 2022 and stands in fourth place. For India, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be in action later today as they make an attempt to win a third goal.
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