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Lakshya Sen saved four match points in the second after getting his first win Canada Open Super 500 in Calgary on Sunday. The six consecutive points he scored to win the tournament showed the mental chokehold he held on China’s Li Shifeng throughout the match to win 21-18, 22-20 in 50 minutes.
Adding extra acceleration on his flat spurts, pouncing on every short spurt and playing some ridiculously powerful shots at the net, Sen went on to win his second Super 500 title of his career after the Indian Open, by defeating the All-England champion.
Sen led 6-2 in the opener and guarded energetically throughout the first set even though Shifeng drew 15 games. Injecting speed into his returns, Sen would create winners every time a loose shuttle floated his way as he demonstrated his ability to rack up points in a combo. Even at the age of fifteen, Sen immediately went on the attack with three quick points to not give up the initiative. Victory in the opener gave him the mental edge over Cheving in a match in which they both played at an overwhelming pace of rallying.
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍 🏆😍
Lakshya defeated All England Champion 🇨🇳 Li Shifeng to claim the title 🔥💥
📸: @tweet#CanadaOpen2023#IndiaontheRise#Badminton @tweet pic.twitter.com/4DIFquYoBK
– BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 10, 2023
By the time Sen reached the All-England finals, it was said that there was no safe lead around Sen. And in a telling sign of a return to form, Sen poked fun at the 20-16 lead Shifeng made up in the second, with six points mostly winners as the Chinese struggled to finish the game.
Sen first knocked out rare line errors from Shifeng, then hit winners of his own to nibble on the lead and take his own championship points, which he converted on the first attempt.
“Lakshya didn’t give up at 20-16. It’s so easy to slip into that frame of mind that he won first place and he can play the decider. But as a coach I kept telling him point by point. He would have been fine if That he went third too, that’s his physique.”
Li Shifeng has a net back — “almost on a conciliatory level” — which he often used to lull Sen into soft, short lifts for the kill, driving him into flat exchanges. From the 20-16 onwards, Sen could specifically sidestep that and send his lifts higher and then back at that point that proved crucial. “But it was important once he got to 20 – all he didn’t breathe a sigh of relief, because if he had lost that match from there he would have been frustrated. He played those two long runs great, sending the lifts higher which resulted in him winning the match,” said Anoop.
He found good openings in the net too, through which he could smash through it. His control of the net despite a few taps was good on the day. A new addition to his arsenal seems to be smashing, which Sen makes excellent use of. And there were a few more forehand strikes that were returned to Shifeng’s body that worked that day. “He is such a combination of mental and physical fitness that he can keep his cool even when things get rough,” Anoop explained.
Shifeng had lost 15 and 16 very recently to Sen, and the memories of that loss would certainly play a role in the Chinese’s collapse at the end of the second set. But it was Sen’s brilliance in sending those lifts back that he was caught at the most opportune moment.
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