All England: Sen stumbles at final hurdle, loses to Axelsen

TIL Desk Sports/ Lakshya Sen’s dream run at the All England Championships ended with a heart-breaking straight-game loss against World No 1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final on Sunday, continuing India’s 21-year-long agonising wait for the coveted trophy.

After four days of sensational badminton, the 20-year-old Sen faltered on the cusp of history as he committed too many errors to go down 10-21, 15-21 to former champion Axelsen in a lop-sided summit clash that lasted 53 minutes at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.

“I think the strategy was there. I played him last week but today he was looking solid in attack and defence as well. He was really patient and played a really good game,” Sen said. “In the opening game, I committed a lot of errors, that cost me the game. I was there in the second game but again he was too solid for me to put the shuttle down.”

On Saturday, Sen had become only the fifth Indian after Prakash Nath (1947), Prakash Padukone (1980, 1981), Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Saina Nehwal (2015) to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after outwitting defending champion Lee Zii Jia in a gruelling semifinal.