Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth assured of maiden medals at BWF World Championships | Badminton News


Twenty-year-old Lakshya Sen created history by becoming the youngest Indian to win a men’s singles medal the World Championships. He will face Kidambi Srikanth in the last four stage. PV Sindhu, however, was dethroned by Tai Tzu Ying 17-21, 13-21 in the women’s singles quarterfinal.
Incidentally, this would be the first time that an Indian shuttler will play the men’s singles final as either Lakshya or Srikanth will reach the summit stage and at least win a silver. With Prannoy playing later on Saturday, India can also win a third medal at the Worlds.
Prakash Padukone, at whose academy Lakshya trains, was 28 when he won the bronze in 1983 and Sai Praneeth, who ended the 36-year-jinx in 2019 was 27 when he claimed bronze.

From being thrown out of the Indian team a couple of months back to confirming himself a medal at the Worlds, Lakshya had a roller-coaster ride.
Disgusted after he lost the selection match for the Thomas Cup, Lakshya left Hyderabad in October only to prove the selectors wrong and announce himself as the future star of Indian badminton.
In the quarterfinals, Lakshya registered a hard fought victory against Zhao Jun Peng of China 21-15, 15-21, 22-20. The manner he won the last five points with four power-packed smashes was a delight to watch. Trailing 19-20, the manner, he dared to get the next two of the three points with smashes shows the character of the former world junior No.1.
A little while earlier, Srikanth outclassed Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands 21-8, 21-7. Srikanth wished Lakshya also would reach the semifinals.

“I wish Lakshya would win,” Srikanth said after the match and Lakshya did not disappoint him.
Srikanth took just 26 minutes to demolish Caljouw. The fact that Srikanth conceded just 15 points, explains how dominant he was against the Dutch.
The victory will end the four-year drought for Srikanth. The 28-year-old hit a slump after winning four Super Series titles in 2017 and becoming world No.1 in 2018. Srikanth was out of action for many weeks and even failing to qualify for the Olympics.
But the champion shuttler practiced hard for the last few months and played well in the last few tournaments.
Srikanth said he did not want to give any “Going into the match I told myself that I had to be in the match and not give my opponent any easy points or a big lead. I just want to be there in the match. Be very focussed throughout. I think that really helped me a lot.
I am tired physically. This is my ninth and 10th tournament. I am happy to reah this stage. Coming into the tournament i only thought about the first round because I faced Pablo. From there I took it match by match,” Srikanth said.
Sindhu once again failed to cross the Tai hurdle. In their 20th meeting, Tai prevailed over the Indian for the 15th time.
Sindhu gave her best and looked like gaining an upperhand in both the games, before Tai’s trickery at the net, floored the Indian. The fact that she conceded an early six-point lead (4-10) in the first game, worked against Sindhu. Though she made a great comeback, Tai managed to take the game. In the second it was going even-stevens till the 12th point before Sindhu lost focus and eventually the match.
Sindhu said that she felt sad about losing out on a medal. “It was a good game overall. It was her day and not my day. It was going close but in the second game and at 12-all I gave her four-five points, I think I took a break there. With Tai Tzu there are no easy points. A bit sad that I was not able to win a medal here,” Sindhu said.





Source link