Lakshya Sen Faces Tough Challenge Against Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen in Paris Games Semi-Finals

PARIS: 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 with a 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 win over Chinese Taipei’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 championship 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, however, has shown little to no respect for the past records against his higher-ranked opponents so far in Paris. He plotted the downfall of world number 4 Jonatan Christie in the group stage and then fought back to down World No 11 Chou in the quarters. Agencies

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