Birmingham [UK], March 16 (ANI): India’s ace shuttler Lakshya Sen bowed out of the ongoing All England Open after suffering a defeat to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in the semi-final of the men’s singles event on Saturday at the Utilita Arena.
The Commonwealth Games champion’s impressive run came to an end with a 12-21, 21-10 and 15-21 defeat in a game that lasted for 68 minutes.
The first game started neck-to-neck with both shuttlers fighting for points with the same amount of intensity, using the court efficiently.
Christie struck the net which saw world number 18, Sen take a 4-3 lead. However, the world number 9 started to falter, following a couple of errors.
The Indonesian shuttler continued to rely on his aggressive approach and imposed his dominance with a remarkable smash to make the scoreline 6-9.
His fearsome approach saw him extend his lead and eventually see out the first game with a 12-21 win.
In the second game, Sen bounced back by forcing out mistakes from Christie which helped him take a dominant 9-3 lead.
The Indian shuttler capitalised on the opening and extended his lead to seven with the Birmingham crowd applauding the 22-year-old and getting behind his back.
Throughout the second game, Lakshya showed patience and persistence to force out mistakes from Christie which allowed the Indian to win and level the match at 1-1 quite comfortably.
In the third game, Lakshya continued to ride high on the momentum that he gained during the second game and took a 5-3 lead. He continued to maintain the two-point advantage but Christie remained unmoved and waited for his moment. He brought the score level at 6-6.
Lakshya fought back to ensure that the Indonesian shuttler didn’t walk away with the advantage but his resolve broke as exhaustion started to affect the Indian shuttler.
Tiredness started to creep into Lakshya’s game as he made mistakes which allowed Christie to move ahead in the match.
Lakshya denied the Indonesian three match points but the Indian couldn’t produce a fairytale comeback. With his defeat, India’s campaign in the All England Open also came to a conclusion. (ANI)
