There’s a tattoo down Lakshya Sen’s neck that reads, “The sky is the limit”.
Whether or not he gets there, at least an Olympic quarterfinal isn’t the limit of his potential. No Indian men’s singles badminton player had ever reached the final-four at the Olympic Games before Lakshya crashed through the door and made history at the Arena Porte de La Chapelle in Paris.
The path to history wasn’t an easy one, with the 22-year-old from Almora having to overcome a one-game deficit and push his defensive skills to the absolute limit to get the better of Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 in a brutal back-and-forth encounter.
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“It feels good to become the first Indian [male] to reach the Olympic semifinals. I’m happy. But I am also very tired. I need to rest before my next match,” he said after his win in an hour-and-fifteen-minute long match.
Lakshya came into the match on the back of tremendous momentum, having beaten All England and Asian champion Jonatan Christie in a must-win group stage encounter and then compatriot HS Prannoy in the pre-quarterfinals. But he was far from the favourite against Chou, a 34-year-old veteran of the international circuit who also had a 3-1 advantage against the Indian.
In the first game, Chou tried to take the Indian by surprise, varying his pace and pulling out disguised trick shots to wrong-foot him. Both players tried to take control of the net, and despite Lakshya having a single-point lead at 18-17, Chou stuck to his tactics of keeping his opponent on his toes. Although Lakshya was scurrying around, he was putting in the work that would pay off late in the contest.
The first game might have been done, but Chou knew he hadn’t yet won. Every match the two have played has been a physical one – all but one encounter going the distance. This was no exception. There was a moment in the second game, however, where Chou felt he had broken the Indian. The two were locked 7-7 when, after a breathtaking rally that had it all – defensive shot piled on jump smashes paired with diving retrieves, shuttles catching the net cord and bobbling over and dropping smashes – Chou hit a drive over Lakshya and found the backline of the court.
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Although Lakshya challenged the call, there was no review on the big screen. The umpire, though, had seen the result on her private monitor and given the point to Chou. Lakshya complained. However, there was nothing to do but play on. From the coaches’ seat, former All England champion Prakash Padukone – at whose academy Lakshya trains – got up and yelled, “Josh dikhao (Show energy!), josh dikhao.”
Lakshya was near breaking point, and when Chou hit a smash winner right after, the latter shrieked as if he had actually won. But he hadn’t yet. Lakshya soaked up all the pressure and turned it around.
At 11-all, it was Lakshya’s turn to break the match, winning a point he shouldn’t have. Completely wrong-footed, he backtracked and hit a no-look retrieve back at Chou that forced an error.
As the match drew on, it was the 12-year younger Indian who seemed the fresher. The match continued to be punctuated with fast, sharp, flat exchanges and net dribbles, but the margin of error in such a game is minute.
The errors in Chou’s game - a couple here and there in the first game - became a flood as Lakshya extended his lead. He took the game, and from thenon, while Chou gamely tried to stay alive, the Indian pulled ahead steadily.
“Lakshya was too fast today,” Chou admitted after the match.
Just as his tattoo says, Lakshya may have pulled through, but he is already looking even further.
“I’m going to rest for a bit and then I’m going to start preparing for my next match,” he said.
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