As Lee Zii Jia leapt in the air and stretched to his forehand side, Lakshya Sen had his heart in his mouth. The Indian had just done what he should have avoided throughout the evening at the La Chapelle Arena – lifting the shuttle high from the net.
Only this time, it was the match point for Lee. The Malaysian not only connected the shot, he picked the bones out of the shuttle. It went down and down within the blink of an eye before hitting Sen flush on the thigh.
It was probably one of the fastest smashes of the match. Or so it seemed, as it shattered the Olympic dream for Sen.
After a splendid run into the 2024 Paris Olympics semi-finals – the first-ever for an Indian in the men’s singles event – the 22-year-old from Almora fell agonisingly short of a spot on the podium. He had conceded the bronze medal match to Lee 21-13, 16-21, 11-21 after being a game up.
Sen, after all the hard work over the course of last week, lost his second match in two days. Three days back, he was just a win away from a historic Olympic podium. On Monday, he stood a broken man.
“I had my chances,” Sen muttered to the broadcasters, fighting back tears. “I could have done better in the second game.”
In hindsight, he could have done much, much better.
Sen, much like during his semi-final against Viktor Axelsen on Sunday, was in control of the bronze medal match. He had a 8-3 lead in the second game after dominating the first, as Lee struggled to control the shuttle from the faster end.
But much like the past, Sen lost the plot once again. Having called the shots in the match until then, the 2021 World Championships bronze medallist went into a shell.
As has been the case with him countless times in the past, Sen lost points in clusters. As soon as Lee started to take the attack to him, the Indian crumbled. His defence, as usual, was watertight, but he failed to create winning opportunities out of them.
A couple of judgement errors at the backline from Sen combined with lifts gone long due to the drift, and a few poor shots in general meant that the 26-year-old Malaysian went on nine-point run. The scoreline went from 8-3 in Sen’s favour to 8-12 as he kept playing the shuttle towards Lee’s backhand.
Sen rectified his errors soon with inputs from the coaching bench of Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar and equalised at 12-12. But, the joy did not last long.
Having sensed the opportunity, Lee continued to pose tough questions. Sen’s mid-court lifts set up easy smashing opportunities and the Malaysian wasn’t complaining. Lee upped the ante in the latter stages to force a decider.
Sen never seemed at his best in the decider. A bleeding elbow on his playing right arm did not help either. He had to call for medical assistance twice as he trailed 6-11 before the change of sides.
“In between points, there was blood on the floor,” said Sen. “It was breaking the momentum, having to go off and then trying to refocus.”
Even as Sen tried to fight back, Lee wasn’t having it. Leading 8-15, the Malaysian put up a stunning display – possibly the play of the match. As Sen disguised a clever drop shot, Lee came running forward and dove full length to return the shuttle.
The Indian was ready at the net and just tapped it back. Lee, back to his feet in a jiffy, flicked the shuttle back onto the open backcourt to finish the point, while Sen was rooted at the net.
Sen was stunned. He knew there was no miraculous comeback on the cards. Lee just would not allow it.
Sen’s loss brought an end to India’s medal winning spree in badminton at the Olympic Games. For the first time since Saina Nehwal’s bronze at the 2012 edition in London, no Indian shuttler would stand on the Olympic podium.
Sen gave it his all. He played seven matches – the most by a men’s singles shuttler – in a span of ten days at the La Chapelle Arena. He had his first-ever Olympic win deleted as Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon withdrew with an injury.
He emerged out on top from the group of death. He beat three higher-ranked players in a row enroute to the semi-final.
Sen, unseeded, kept Indian hopes alive after a men’s doubles favourites Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and two-time women’s singles medallist PV Sindhu were knocked out.
Having made a late dash to qualify for the Olympics, Sen held his own. He could have returned with a historic medal, but he can hold his head high.
Sen even impressed the eventual gold medallist Axelsen, who termed their semi-final as one of the toughest battles of his career.
“Four years from now, he’ll be one of the favourite to win the gold,” said Axelsen.
This time, what he had was not enough.
Sen sports a tattoo on his neck with the words “Sky is the limit.”
For Sen, it indeed is.