22-year-old Sen becomes the first Indian man to enter an Olympics badminton semi-final
Lakshya Sen has defeated Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-Chen to seal his spot in the semi-final at the Paris Olympic Games 2024. The 22-year old becomes the first Indian man to qualify for the last-four in Olympics badminton. (Match Highlights | Schedule & Results | Full Coverage)
Sen defeated Tien-Chen Lakshya beat Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 to advance to the semis.
Lakshya Sen made it to the quarter-finals of the men's singles badminton at the Paris Olympics 2024 on the back of some good showing. He beat fellow Indian compatriot HS Prannoy 21-12, 21-6 in an all-Indian round of 16 tie at the La Chapelle Arena on Thursday.
Prior to that, 22-year-old had also completed victories over Jonathan Christie and Julian Carraggi in the Group L round fixtures.
Prior to this fixture, Sen's head-to-head record against Chen was not good. The Taiwanese shuttler had a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head record with his first win over Lakshya dating back to 2022 in the Thomas Cup.
The only occasion Lakshya overpowered Chen was at the All England Open in 2023, where he won 21-18, 21-19.
Sen, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will face the winner of the match between 2021 World Champion Loh kean Yew of Singapore and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the last four.
Women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are the only Indians to have crossed the quarterfinal stage in Olympics. In men's singles, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth had reached the quarterfinals in 2012 London and 2016 Rio editions respectively.