Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen expressed his confidence of giving his best in the bronze medal match of the men's singles against Lee Zii Jia at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Monday, August 4.
Sen's hopes to win a gold medal were dashed when he lost to the defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the semifinal clash. Lakshya Sen was left no room to make a comeback by Axelsen as the Danish player defeated him in two straight sets - 22-20, 21-14.
However, Sen still has a chance to win an Olympic medal when he faces Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match. Speaking to the official broadcaster after the semifinal defeat, the 22-year-old from Almora was asked about his thoughts on facing the Malaysian shuttler in the bronze medal game. He responded that he would try to give his 100 percent to secure a medal for India.
"I will start preparing since match is tomorrow. So, I will try to give my 100% tomorrow. I got to learn a lot of things from this match (semifinal against Vikter Axelsen). I will do good things in the next match and I wish I will continue with it."
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Lakshya Sen remains the only medal hope for India in badminton as his fellow shuttlers, including PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and women's duo Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto have been knocked out of the ongoing Olympics.
Sen won his Olympic match against Kevin Cordon of Guatemela in the first round of the group stage. However, Lakshya Sen's win against Cordon was deleted as the Guatemelan shuttler withdrew from the Games due to elbow.
Despite the tough blow, the 22-year-old won the next two games against Julien Carragi and Jonathan Christie to qualify for the pre-quarters, where he defeated his Indian compatriot HS Prannoy. In the quarterfinals, sen defeated Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei in three sets and qualified for the semifinal.
Lakshya Sen became the first-ever Indian shuttler to qualify for the semifinals of the men's singles at the Olympics. The Almora-born shuttler will look to script another history when he takes on Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match.
