Olympics 2024| Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu storm into knockout stages

The immensely talented Lakshya Sen aced his acid test in flying colours while veteran PV Sindhu barely broke a sweat as the duo stormed into the knockout stages of the badminton competition at the Paris Olympics here on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old Sen, who has been struggling for form and rhythm this season, was slow off the blocks against third seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia but the Indian found his bearings quickly to dust off the third seed 21-18, 21-12 in their do-or-die Group L clash at the La Chapelle arena.

The youngster, playing with a taped wound just below his right elbow, could potentially take on compatriot HS Prannoy in the last-16 on Thursday if the 32-year-old is able to defeat Vietnamese Duc Phat Le in his Group K clash later in the night.

Sindhu, chasing a third Olympic medal following her bronze in Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo 2020 but still finding her feet after returning to the circuit in February from a knee injury, hardly had to switch past the third gear against Estonian Kristin Kuuba as she won 21-5, 21-1o in around 33 minutes.

The game against Kuuba was just a workout for the last-16 and challenges thereafter for Sindhu and the 29-year-old Hyderabadi exactly did that. With her current mentor, the great Prakash Padukone by her side, Sindhu absolutely roasted Kuuba in their first meeting, much to the delight of the strong Indian gathering.

Sindhu only dropped her first point after racing to a 8-0 lead, the gulf in class between former world champion and a player ranked 73rd in the world completely evident. Sindhu barely gave a sniff of a point to Kuuba as she dictated play from all areas of the court, be it serves, drop shots or smashes.

After sealing the opening game in quick time, Sindhu slightly lifted her foot off the pedal in the second. That was loosening of the noose Kuuba wished for the Estonian made the most of the goodwill by winning a few points to take the break in the second game at 6-11.

Padukone then had a few words with Sindhu and that’s when she decided to finish off Kuuba. Switching back to her A game, she kept reeling off one smash after another as Kuuba struggled to maintain her footing. Sindhu then sealed off the rubber with a smash that Kuuba could only manage to net.

Things were not that straightforward for Sen who took the court right after Sindhu exited. He was caught unawares by Christie’s all-out attacking game, the Indian not knowing how to quell the storm. The Uttarakhand-born shuttler, who trains under Vimal Kumar in PPBA in Bengaluru, was scampering all over the court against a player who he’d lost four times on the trot.

Christie’s go for broke strategy, however, ended up becoming his undoing as Sen showed solid maturity to not only regain control of the match but exhibit his own authority as well. He figured that Christie would make errors as he kept going for quick points and all he needed to was strengthen his defence and then pick the right moments to counter-attack. He basically had to play smart percentage badminton.

That’s exactly what he did as he made very little mistakes in the rallies, always putting the shuttle in play and even producing some incredible reflex returns. Christie at least kept himself in the opening game but with no Plan B, he was almost out of contention in the second as Sen opened up a 11-6 lead and then dictated play thereafter to storm into last-16.