The world no.9 Jonatan Christie ended Lakshya Sen's campaign in the All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 with a thrilling 12-21, 21-10, 15-21 win in the men's singles semifinal in Birmingham on Saturday.
Lakshya Sen, the world no.19 and runner-up at the All England Open in 2022, went down easily in the opening set but made a stunning comeback in the second set with a dominant 21-10 win. He also took the 98-7 lead in the decider but the Indonesian star made a sensational comeback to take the set and game.
Christie is set to face compatriot Anthony Ginting, the world no.5, in the men's singles final. With Lakshya's exit, India's challenge at the prestigious BWF Super 1000 tournament came to an end.
This was the third loss for Lakshya in four BWF encounters against Christie. Lakshya failed to progress beyond the first round in seven consecutive BWF tournaments last year but has regained his form in 2024. He also reached the semifinal of the French Open Super 750 where he suffered a heartbreaking defeat against Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Lakshya, 22, produced comeback wins against Anders Antonsen and Lee Zii Jia, the 2021 champion, in the last two rounds to enter the second consecutive BWF semifinal.
"I am pretty disappointed with the result but, overall, the way I played, surely, I have the level to be there and win the big tournaments," Lakshya said after the loss. "I have been through some tough patches before this, but there has been lot of support for me in social media but I couldn't do my best today. I made some easy mistakes."
He was India's only hope for the title in the prestigious tournament after the world no.1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's shock exit in the round of 16 on Thursday. In women's singles, PV Sindhu was knocked out by the world no.1 An Se Young in the round of 16.
