Laskhya Sen entered his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
In the following match on the show court, Sen, the world number 10, lost his way after a dominating start against 87-ranked Jia Heng Teh of Singapore. Sen, however, recovered to complete a 21-10, 18-21, 21-16 win in the men’s singles semifinals.
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The 20-year-old relies on relentless attack to put his opponent on the backfoot and he was able to do just that in the first game. A couple of forehand smashes on the Singaporean’s right helped him take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The momentum shifted towards Jia in the second game as he slowed the pace. A drop shot followed by a backhand winner made it 8-8 before he went into the interval with a 9-11 advantage. A slew of unforced errors from Sen saw Jia take the next five points to make it 9-16. Sen tried to hang in the game but after the Singaporean took a shoe change break at 15-18, he was able to level the match when the young Indian hit a forehand long. Sen built an 11-7 lead in the decider, though Jia made the Indian work hard for every point. The Singaporean was also given a last warning for delay in between points.
Sen got four points and converted the first one with a deft drop shot that set up a backhand winner. “I didn’t get in the rhythm in the second but I managed to pull it off in the end. The crowd support also helped a lot in the first game,” said Sen.
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