All England Championships: Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen beats defending champion Lee Zii Jia to reach final

Source: Twitter

India's rising star in badminton Lakshya Sen known no stopping. The 20-year-old shuttler is in the form of his life, having beaten current Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen at German Open only a few days back. Two days ago, he beat World No 3 Anders Antonsen at the All England Championships and now  the World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen has stunned defending champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia to reach his maiden final at the All England Championships on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Sen became only the fourth men's singles player after Prakash Nath, Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after outwitting sixth seed Lee 21-13 12-21 21-19 in a gruelling semifinal match that lasted one hour and 16 minutes.

While Padukone (1980) and Gopichand (2001) are the only two Indians to have won the prestigious event, Nath (1947) and women's singles player Saina Nehwal (2015) had lost in the final.

What have we just witnessed _

Lakshya Sen is through to the YONEX All England final after beating Lee Zii Jia.

AMAZING! #YAE22 pic.twitter.com/EiKKPzQrB7 — _ Yonex All England Badminton Championships _ (@YonexAllEngland) March 19, 2022

Sen has been in sensational form in the last six months as he secured his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January and then claimed a runner-up finish at the German Open last week. 

"I was definitely nervous but I was just trying to play one point at a time and not the occasion," said Sen.

"Towards the end, I was just trying to not thing about the things that was going around, it was a All England semifinal and the thoughts were coming in but I was trying to keep myself focussed.

"I am happy that I won the match and I get to play tomorrow. I will take this time to recover and go all out tomorrow."

With PTI inputs