Star shuttler Lakshya Sen missed his date with historical past after stumbling to a three-game loss in opposition to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie within the semifinals of the All England Championships in Birmingham on Saturday, prolonging India’s lengthy anticipate the coveted trophy. In a recreation of nice margins, the 22-year-old, who had completed runner-up within the 2022 version, was marginally quick as he slipped to a 21-12, 10-21, 15-21 defeat to world No. 9 Christie, the 2018 Asian Games gold medallist, after a 68-minute smash-fest.

“I am pretty disappointed with the result but, overall, the way I played, surely, I have the level to be there and win the big tournaments,” Sen stated after the match.

“I have been through some tough patches before this, but there has been lot of support for me in social media but I couldn’t do my best today. I made some easy mistakes.” Christie will now face fellow Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in Sunday’s closing.

Sen, who reached the semifinals of French Open Super 750 the earlier week, has been on court docket for 491 minutes taking part in some nerve-wrecking badminton within the final 11 days and, maybe, these gruelling three-setters might need taken their toll on him as he ran out of steam within the semis.

But these back-to-back semifinal finishes are prone to lock his Paris Olympic berth when the BWF rankings are revealed by April finish.

“All the matches that I played were long so I could feel it in the recovery, in the next day match preparation. All of them were required to win for that particular day,” Sen stated.

“Some of the matches I started really slow in the first set and having a good lead but not being able to convert in the first setter. This is one thing I would want to close matches in two games.” On Friday night time, Sen had displayed nice psychological resolve for a surprising 20-22, 21-16, 21-19 win over former champion Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia to progress to the boys’s singles semifinals.

In the semis, it turned out to be a battle of smashes as the 2 attacking gamers rained down 350-plus kmph thunderbolts in the course of the tight rallies.

Sen made a particularly sluggish begin as Christie learn the sport properly and took the shuttle early to dominate the proceedings. Soon he was 11-7 up when Sen sprayed one large.

The Indonesian punished something marginally quick from the Indian and swelled the result in 17-10 with one other highly effective cross court docket smash.

Another internet error and large smash from the Indian took Christie to eight recreation factors and he sealed it with a winner.

The momentum, nonetheless, utterly shifted after the change of sides with Sen taking extra initiative to steer 7-3.

It was Christie who was making a collection of unforced errors now.

One such internet error and a large shot gave an enormous 11-3 benefit to the Indian, who made it 13-3 when he despatched again a towering smash from the Indonesian with a backhand block.

Christie tried to vary issues however his errors held him again as Sen moved to 17-5.

A 379kmph smash took Sen to 18-6. The Indian even managed to play a behind-the-back return throughout a flat out change however Christie managed to win the rally and shortly moved to 9-18, attempting to interrupt Sen’s rhythm.

But Sen moved to 10 recreation factors when Christie went large and sealed it with a exact on-the-line smash.

In the decider, Sen constructed the rallies properly initially utilizing calculated strokes to maintain his opponent on the again and opened up a 3-0 lead. However, Christie restored parity with three factors.

Sen’s capability to give you highly effective and exact smashes held him in good stead, and he was up 6-3.

At 6-4, the duo performed a 63-shot rally, leaving Sen exhausted as Christie sealed it with a well-disguised shot.

Christie grabbed the lead with a physique smash earlier than transferring to the break with a three-point benefit because the momentum shifted once more.

Soon the Indonesian began unleashing booming smashes. One such razor-sharp down-the-line smash took Christie to 13-9 and he saved the four-point benefit at 14-10 with one other physique smash.

Sen dumped a flick serve into the online as Christie led 15-10. A collection of smashes took Christie to 17-12 and shortly he had eight match factors at his disposal.

The Indian saved three match factors earlier than sprayed a shot into the online to sprint all of the hopes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)