World No. 10 Lakshya Sen beat Malaysia’s rising star Ng Tze Yong 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 in a thrilling match which went on to three sets in the men’s singles badminton final in the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham to win the gold medal. Lakshya, who was part of the silver medal-winning mixed team, secured his maiden singles gold to script history in his first-ever appearance in CWG.
This is India’s 5th medal in the sport following mixed team’s silver, PV Sindhu’s women’s singles gold, Kidambi Srikanth’s bronze in men’s singles and Treesa Jolly and G. Pullela’s bronze in women’s doubles while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will be playing the men’s doubles final.
Lakshya — who had beaten Tze Yong twice before coming into the CWG final, including the match in Indian Open where he won 19-21 21-16 21-12 — was put under pressure by the Malaysian shuttler in the contest early in the first set.
Tze Yong made the Indian 20-year-old fall into his net trap quite often while playing those cross court shots to take an early lead at the halftime in the first set. Lakshya came back with a couple of good retrieval points to level 18-18 before Tze Yong sealed the game 21-19.
Lakshya was unstoppable in the second game as he just made Tze Yong run around the court to seal the second game quite comfortably 21-9. The final set saw some of the most mouthwatering rallies of the match but the Indian youngster proved to be just too strong, completely stealing Tze Yong’s thunder as in the last few points, the Malaysian shuttler seemed to have completely lost momentum, apart from a couple of rallies. Tze Yong had bruised his left knee while trying to win a couple of points before Lakshya eventually took the game and the match.
Tze Yong has been one of the stars of CWG having beaten India’s Kidambi Srikanth twice – once in team event and once in the singles semi-finals – and shocked the world champion Loh Kean Yew in the men’s singles quarter-finals 15-21, 21-14, 21-11 to dream of a historic gold in his maiden appearance in the games.
Lakshya, on the other hand, was coming off from a hard-fought win against Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh. Lakshya was pegged back after winning the first set but came back strongly to seal the match 21-10, 18-21, 21-16. Lakshya had sailed into the semis with an easy win over Mauritius’ Julien Georges Paul 21-12 21-11.
2022 has been a staggering year for Lakshya and his rise in the badminton world since his World championships bronze medal win against compatriot Srikanth last year.
Lakshya clinched his first Super 500 title in January beating Loh Kean Yew in the India Open final while defeating the World No.1 Viktor Axelsen in the semifinals of the German Open before losing in the final.
Lakshya lost in the final of the All England Open to Axelsen 10-21, 15-21 before withdrawing from the Swiss Open. Lakshya was part of the Indian team’s historic win in the Thomas Cup where they beati Indonesia 3-0 as he beat Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, 8-21 21-17 21-16.
