India’s Lakshya Sen let Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia loose from a commanding position to miss the men’s singles badminton bronze in the Olympic Games here today.

The 22-year-old Indian, who lost to Denmark’s Victor Axelsen in the semi finals from a dominant position, lost his way for the second match running.

Advertisement

Sen, ranked 22, took the opening game 21-13 and led 8-3 in the second before Lee, ranked 7th in the world, turned the match around in his favour to win the bronze medal play-off in 71 minutes.

Sen lost 21-13, 16-21, 11-21. He took two medical breaks during the latter part of the match for his injured elbow and played with a bandaged hand towards the end.

Sen, thus, lost a golden opportunity to become the first Indian male shuttler to grab an Olympic medal.

Only Saina Nehwal, with a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, and two-time medalist P V Sindhu (silver in 2016 Rio and bronze in the last Games in Tokyo) have climbed the medal podium in the quadrennial sports spectacle in the shuttle game.

Sen was at his aggressive best In the opener with his jump smashes but got rattled by his rival’s bodyline attack from midway through the second game.

Lee also showed great reflexes to counter Sen’s shots.

Lee reeled off 8 points in a row in the second game when he trailed badly and recaptured the initiative. He never allowed Sen to come back after drawing level at 12.

In the first game Sen, wo went into the match with a 3-1 head to head advantage against Lee, jumped to a 11-5 lead by the mid-game break.

Playing smartly the Indian shuttler jumped to a 13-6 lead, lost three points, before regaining control to surge to 19-12 with a smash. Soon afterwards he clinched it when Lee hit long.

In game 2, Sen was up 7-2 and before his rival got into a purple patch and reeled off eight points in a row to narrow the Indian’s lead to 8-11.

Lee drew level at 12 and then took a small lead of 18-15. The game had turned his way as he claimed it 21-16 as Sen netted the shuttle.

The decider was totally dominated by Lee who took a handy 9-2 lead. At 5-10 Sen took a break to have his bruised elbow treated.

The match looked to have swung in Lee’s favour by then. Two telling smashes at the end showcased the Malaysian’s superb turnaround.

“I am disappointed by the result. At times when the scores are crucial, you have to be mentally strong. Credit to him, he played a really solid game in the second. And, there were unforced errors from my side,” Sen said after his loss.