The heavy Indian contingent in the spectators’ gallery at Paris Arena Porte de La Chapelle was excited as it sensed an upset in the court below. Olympic men’s singles badminton champion Viktor Axelsen looked in real trouble against India’s Lakshya Sen.
Axelsen tried to block out the noise. Down three game points in the opening set of this Olympic semifinal match, Axelsen leaned forward in his stance and tried to keep his mind blank. “I was thinking if I was going to lose this first game, I might as well play freely,” he said later.
On the other side of the net, Lakshya’s mind was in overdrive. What should have been obvious now seemed anything but. Should he play a short serve or hit the shuttle high? Axelsen knew the Indian’s mind was all over the place. “I know he was thinking a lot. He was maybe starting to think, ‘oh, if I grab this set then I have the momentum. I have a big chance’,” Axelsen said.
The Indian’s brain would indeed proceed to freeze with all that information overload. He wouldn’t place the shuttle high or dribble it over the net. Instead, he pushed the shuttle into the top of the cord for it to bobble over for a foul serve. One game point saved. Two more unforced errors would follow. Axelsen earned a game point of his own and converted it right away.
Lakshya’s shoulders slumped as he walked back to pick up his bag and change sides. The Indian recovered, getting off to a strong start in the next game, but Axelsen again pulled things back. He took the game easily, winning the match 22-20, 21-14.
As the Indian walked off the court in stunned silence, he would play over what had happened. He had had more than his fair share of chances – leading 15-9 and then gaining three game points in the opener and then storming off to a 7-0 lead in the second.
Each time though, Axelsen came back, counting on the Indian to make mistakes at critical junctures.
So just how did Axelsen know what was going to happen? It’s not that the 30-year-old from Denmark is a mind reader. It’s just that he’s gone through the exact same thing. Lakshya is 22 and playing in his first Olympics — exactly how old Axelsen was when he made his Olympic debut in Rio eight years ago. There, too, he was looking to be the first Danish player to make the Olympic finals but was blown away by China’s Chen Long.
India’s Lakshya Sen congratulates Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen for winning the Men’s Singles Semifinal badminton match. | Photo Credit: Ravi Choudhary/PTI
“These rings do strange things to you,” he would say in the mixed zone after the win. “I know what they do to you mentally. Lakshya is the first Indian men’s singles player in the Olympic semifinals. No man in India has done what he has done. He’s already thinking of what is ahead. I could see that he was tensed. I knew he was getting nervous and it’s at that point that I have to be ready to take advantage of his mistake. I just have to keep the shuttle on the court and wait for his mistake” said Axelsen.
The Indian was indeed in uncharted waters simply by making the Olympic semifinals. He also knew he had to start well. In the eight matches he’d played with Axelsen, the Indian had never won a match in which he had lost the first game – and over the course of his career that had happened all of one time.
In his quarterfinal against Chou Tien Chen, Lakshya had played one of the games of his career – putting together a nearly error-free performance against the Taiwanese player. He was a lot less poised on Sunday – starting with three straight unforced errors to give Axelsen a 0-3 lead.
In Lakshya’s defence, he wasn’t the only nervous one out there. Axelsen made mistakes too. He left shuttles that would land inside the tramlines. Very often it was the Indian who was forcing the pace, working the Danish around the court. He had more than his share of eye-catching shots too – wrong footing Axelsen and then hitting a kill shot to make it 19-17 and then earning a game point with a cross-court smash that even the six-foot-five Danish player couldn’t get his racquet to.
In the second game too, it was the Indian who went off to a storming start. But here too, Axelsen got into his groove and a few moments of magic from the Indian couldn’t change the flow of the match.
Axelsen knew this too. He let Lakshya have his moments but then began to control the match. “Lakshya was better than me for many parts of the game. He could have won the match on the court, but I won the match up here. He should have won but he tensed up because of his nerves.” He said tapping the side of his head for emphasis.
Victory wrapped up, Viktor said: “I’ve gone through what he had before. But he’s going to be a real contender for the 2028 Olympics. I think the difference in experience made a difference today.”
If Axelsen believes much of Lakshya’s campaign reminds him of his own debut in 2016, there’s hope for the Indian. Even though Axelsen was bitterly disappointed after losing his semifinal, he got back on the court to beat Lin Dan in the Olympic bronze medal match.
Lakshya will have to pick himself up and prepare for Monday’s bronze medal match against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia. He has competed against the Malaysian five times, winning four of those games. But he’s never had to recover mentally as he will have to after what must be a crushing disappointment on Sunday. The Indian is aware of what he must do. “I have to forget what has happened. I have another match to prepare for,” he said.
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