Sensational heartbreak

Rohit Mahajan in Paris

For the second time in two days, lightning struck Lakshya Sen at badminton Court 1, La Chapelle Arena.

There was blood on the floor, heartbreak in the air. Sen, dreaming of gold yesterday, let his mind wander at 20-17 in the first game against Viktor Axelsen. Today, his mind on the bronze, and it wandered, his game went to pieces. Like Axelsen yesterday, Jia Lee Zia grabbed his chance and broke Sen’s heart yet again, winning the bronze playoff 13-21 21-16 21-11.

Minutes after the loss, Sen seemed to be sleepwalking, his mind numb. “At the moment I am not able to…” he said before his voice trailed off. “Midway in the sets, the blood was on the floor. They had to wipe it, and I lost some of my momentum.”

Blood oozed out of Sen’s right elbow, from an injury he suffered while diving to pick up a Lee smash.

Sen had beaten Lee four times in their five previous encounters, and his nightmare had a dream start today.

Lee, man with a power game but also inconsistent, eschewed his usual attacking style and tried to engage Sen in a game that Sen enjoys — delicate touches at the net, half-smashes, crosscourt flicks and drops; moreover, Lee made far too many errors for comfort — there has been a draught in the hall, and the Malaysian struggled to put just the right amount of power in his overhead strokes.

Lee sent the shuttle long and wide far too often; Sen, expecting more such free points, also made errors of judgement on the backline, leaving the shuttle only to see it fall at the line at least four times. Yet, moving swiftly across the court, picking up the smashes, he kept his nose ahead. He won points at the net, and with powerful body smashes — Sen led 15-10, 17-11 and needed only one match point from 20-13. The game ended, fittingly, when Lee hit the shuttle long.

More of the same in the second game, and Sen was up 8-3 when Lee hit one long. Then, against all expectations, the tables were turned — Lee found his range, his style, his aggression, and Sen became shaky and vulnerable.

Lee started smashing it hard, and won the first of his nine points in a row with three smashes — Sen, diving right, picked up two, but could not return the third. 8-4 for Sen. The Indian then hit long, and Lee smashed into Sen’s body — 6-8. Sen was looking edgy and desperate, perhaps troubled by the memories of yesterday — overeager, he smashed into the net, dropped into the net, and sent it wide, and sent it high for Lee to smash it down. In a trice, Sen was down 8-10.

Sen’s judgement began to fail him — he let the shuttle drop well inside the baseline, and nearly did it a second time. He was shaky on return of serve, and at 15-17, he sent up a return that sat up over the net for Lee to smash it down volleyball-style.

The Indians in the stands waved the flag, urged him to “fight”, shouted “jeetaga bhai jeetage, India jeetega”. But no amount of pleadings by the crowd, no amount of counsel from coaches Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar could put Sen’s game together again.

The third game, it was one way traffic once again and Sen’s game went horribly awry. The injury on his right elbow — for which play had to be halted, for him to get his arm bandaged — would have hurt, but it’s in the mind that Sen lost the match and bronze.

“I just tried to switch the strategy, tried to overturn the lead,” said Lee, explaining his sudden turn to aggression in the second game. “I was trying not to give up. I tried to turn the game more attacking, smashing.”

Axelson, who won his second consecutive Olympics gold, offered some words of consolation to Sen: “He’s such a strong opponent. He’s fast, very tough opponent. He gets so many shots back!”

Praise from the world’s greatest player, however, would be scant consolation for a man nursing a heart broken twice in two days.