Paris: When the prodigious Lakshya Sen strode out to the show court of the La Chapelle arena on Tuesday for his crunch clash against Jonatan Christie, the lack of confidence in the Indian was evident at the start.
Without a tournament win for over a year following battles with injuries last season and having made the Paris Olympics cut by the skin of his teeth, Sen appeared somewhat overwhelmed by the challenge of defeating third seed Christie in the do-or-die Group L clash. Not only had Sen suffered four first-round defeats in 11 appearances this season, he’d also failed to beat Christie in their last four meetings.
Indonesian Christie, a decorated shuttler with the crown jewel being the 2018 Asian Games singles gold at Jakarta that escalated him to superstar status in his country, was quick to figure out the distorted state of the mind Sen was in. Although reigning Commonwealth Games singles champion Sen himself has tasted a lot of glory at a very young age, the lack of success over the last year was seemingly playing in his head.
And Christie, ranked second in the world, pounced on it. He came rushing off the blocks like a predator, kept smashing the cork at blazing speeds and literally left Sen wondering what had hit him. Mentor Prakash Padukone, who has nurtured him at his eponymous academy since a little boy, and Vimal Kumar, who has coached him from the start, watched with the mayhem unfold in utter unbelief.
They would have wished to have a word with their boy Sen and calm the tide but it wasn’t possible until Christie could race away to 11 points. But Sen, who peaked to World No. 6 in Nov 2022 and has been touted as the next big thing in men’s singles, braved it all like a battle-hardened soldier and fought back displaying incredible maturity.
With a rival going all guns blazing, Sen figured defence is the best form of attack. He executed that perfectly, returning all of Christie’s powerful hits back to him. Christie then tried to step up the pedal but in doing so erred with his lines and Sen, waiting patiently like a wounded tiger, pounced on those to turn the tables and catch his opponent cold.
First he caught on with Christie and then, mixing caution with aggression superbly, took a surprise lead towards the end of the opening game before going to seal it. That got his confidence flowing and then fans at the arena got to see what made Sen rise up the ladder of success exponentially. The smashes came out, deft net play was visible and even blink and you miss reflex returns. Midway through the second Christie was out of gas and Sen roared home in gallant fashion.
“He started really well with a really attacking game and it took me 5-6 points to figure out what he's doing and he was trying to just pin me at the back,” an exhausted Sen said after the match. “Because he was on the slower side he was just trying to play fast. Then quickly I could figure it out and come back in the beginning. And then on it was just a matter of keeping that 1 or 2 point lead and then closing out the first game. Second game I looked much more in control.”
Sen then acknowledged that defeating Christie is the right shot of confidence he needed as he hopes to make a mark in his debut Olympics. “It gives you a lot of confidence going into the tournament and I think in the last few matches I haven't done well against him. I mean the matches have been close, I've played well but I've not been able to close out the matches. But happy with the win and the revenge.”
Sen will kickstart his quest for a medal when the knockouts start on Thursday.