Paris Olympics: How Lakshya Sen was left searching for answers after bronze medal match loss

New Delhi: Lakshya Sen couldn’t hide his disappointment after getting beaten in the badminton men’s singles bronze medal match at Paris Olympics on Monday.

Sen raced to a one-game lead in the semi-final but then conceded nine points successively in the second game to lose momentum and go down to world number seven Jia Zii Lee of Malaysia.

Sen had his coaches Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar in his corner but lost 13-21, 21-16, 21-11 in 71 minutes. He had earlier gone done to eventual champions Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the semi-final.

Asked to comment on the reason for his loss, the 22-year-old only said: “It was hard for me to find answers.”

“I started this match really good but I couldn’t hold the lead and then when he started playing well, it was hard for me to find answers in the rallies. Overall, a bit disappointed with the results,” he said, as quoted by PTI.

Against Axelsen too, Sen had taken a big lead but allowed the Dane to claw back and then snatch the contest as his dream of becoming the first Indian male shuttler to win an Olympic medal lay in tatters.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know how to compare both of them. Both were really important matches and I don’t know,” he said.

“At times when the score is crucial and you have to be mentally really strong. Credit to him, he played a solid game in the second half,” Sen said of Lee.

Sen said he would go back to the drawing board to analyse what mistakes he made, but felt he made a lot of unforced errors.

“There were some unforced errors. He was playing a really sharp game in the second half. I will sit back and analyze what can I do better in the next tournament,” he said, also pointing out that the elbow injury didn’t affect his play.

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 Lakshya Sen lost 13-21, 21-16, 21-11 to Jia Zii Lee of Malaysia in the Paris Olympics bronze level match.  Badminton Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today