India’s Lakshya Sen will need to play out of his skin to keep his maiden gold medal hopes alive when he takes on the reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Paris Games on Sunday.
Making his Olympics debut, Sen created history on Friday after becoming the first Indian individual male shuttler to reach the last four of the showpiece event with a 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 win over Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen in an intense quarter-final match.
The Indian will have yet another uphill task at hand when he takes on Axelsen, the baby-faced badminton giant, who has terrorised his opponents in the last few years.
The 30-year-old from Odense, Denmark, has won the Tokyo gold and Rio bronze, two World Championships titles in 2017 and 2022, a Thomas Cup triumph in 2016 and
multiple BWF world tour and Superseries titles to experience a dominating run as world No. 1 from December 2021 to June 2024.
Sen, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, has lost seven times to the super Dane, who faced defeat just once against the Indian at the 2022 German Open.
The 22-year-old Indian, however, has shown little to no respect for the past records against his higher-ranked opponents so far as he plotted the downfall of world No. 4 Jonatan Christie in the group stage and Chou, ranked 11, in the quarters.
Axelsen has looked a tad subdued this season with just one title — the Malaysia Masters.
The Dane also suffered an ankle injury in early June during the Singapore Open and was forced to withdraw from the Indonesia Open.
Sen, on the other hand, hasn’t looked fitter in his career. He has been rock solid
in his defence as he covered the court well and played at a high pace. His ability to produce winners at will has held him in good stead.
The 1.94m-tall Dane has an all-rounded game and is known to rain down brutal smashes from a great height.
In their eight meetings, only two matches have gone to three games, which shows Axelsen’s dominance.
Sen sports a “Sky is the limit” tattoo on his neck. So no challenge should be too tall for him. Not even Axelsen.
