Paris Olympics 2024: India's Lakshya Sen just one win shy from clinching an Olympic medal

Lakshya Sen returns to Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Tapei during their quarter-final match on Friday. Pic/Getty Images

Badminton fanatics who witnessed Friday's men's singles quarter-final clash between India's Lakshya Sen and Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen would have found their cup of joy overflog at the manner in which two implacable gladiators - one, a 22-year-old highly talented, focused and single-minded individual, and the other an equally determined, wily veteran of the court - fought each other for an hour and a quarter, producing pulsating badminton of the highest quality.

Sen's eventual 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 victory, in spite of his adverse 1-3 record in career meetings with the Taiwanese ace, was as much a result of his superior staying powers as it was of his newly discovered self-belief. The 12-year age advantage that the lad from Almora in Uttarakhand had over the poker-faced Taipei native weighed as much on the scales as the fact that Chou had heroically returned to the courts after a battle with a far more deadly adversary - colo-rectal cancer.

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Viktor Axelsen. Pic/AP, PTI

It was this combination of factors that finally took the match away from the old-timer. While Chou's mind was willing to engage in another of his patented doughty fight-till-the-bitter-end battles, his body had other ideas, and simply could not keep up with the speed, agility and accuracy of his youthful rival.

The only Indian left in the badminton events in Paris, Sen is now just one match away from a medal. In the semi-finals on Sunday, he will take on a familiar rival and good friend, Viktor Axelsen, the two-time world champion and defending gold medallist from Tokyo 2020, for the right to fight the ner of the other semi-final between Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia and reigning world champion, Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.

Axelsen's dominance

The penultimate reckoning will be far from easy. The head-to-head career statistics clearly favour Axelsen, as the Dane has had the better of Sen on seven of the eight occasions they have clashed. The Indian's solitary against the current World No. 2 came all the way back in 2022 during the German Open semi-final, when he literally pipped Axelsen at the tape with a 21-13, 12-21, 22-20 triumph.

Sen, in fact, is beholden to Axelsen, who had invited the three L's - Lakshya, Lee Zii Jia and Singapore's Loh Kean Yew - to his training base in Dubai in September 2021 for a two-week training stint. That experience helped the youngster so much that he ended up bagging a bronze medal at the World Championships in December that year, after losing the semi-final to compatriot Kidambi Srikanth. The most recent encounter between the two in the Round of 32 clash at the 2024 Singapore Open, just two months ago, ended in a close for the Dane after Sen pushed him hard in the middle game, only to lose by a 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 scoreline.

Mind games

Nevertheless, the form that Sen is in at the moment, allied to his focus and composure, makes him a dangerous opponent. The Indian's main hope is to get into Axelsen's mind and create doubts that he can tear through the Indian's defences. On rare occasions, the Dane is seen to be fragile in his temperament. Making him play that extra shot, in the classic Djokovic fashion, much as the Indian had done against Jonatan Christie and Chou Tien Chen, is the only way the underdog can hope to cross the penultimate round hurdle and go for gold.