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Indian Badminton star Lakshya Sen suffered a crushing 21-12, 16-21, 11-21 defeat against Le e Zii Jia of Malaysia and lost the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. In the semi-final, Sen suffered a crushing 22-20, 21-14 loss against defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, after becoming the first Indian male shuttler to reach this stage.
Before this semi-final clash, Sen registered a monumental win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen 19-21, 21-15, 21-12 in the quarterfinal. Coming back to the Aréna Porte de La Chapelle for the bronze medal match, Sen started positively as he jumped to an 8-4 lead before going into the break with an 11-5 advantage.
With his foot on the gas, Lakshya Sen zoomed through after the interval as he took a 15-9 lead and then clinched Game 1 with a 21-12 margin. In the second game, the 22-year-old maintained a commanding presence from the opening serve as he took a 7-2 lead. But the Malay star rocked back into the contest by cutting Sen's lead down and levelling the scores at 8-8.
After this sudden surge, Lee Zii Jia went into the mid-game break ahead and took a 12-8 lead. Sen gradually crawled back into the contest as he fended away Jia's thunderous shots to level the scores at 12-12. The Indian was under constant pressure as Lee Zii Jia took a 17-14 lead but held his own in the contest.
With the scoreboard saying 19-16 in Jia's favour, Game 2 was halted as Lakshya Sen needed medical attention on his bruised right elbow. After the break, the Malay was quick to take the game point and clinched Game 2 with a 21-16 margin.
The Malaysian star continued his dominant form in the deciding game and took a swift 3-1 lead with a few thunderous slams. Lee Zii Jia continued with his aggressive approach to take a 7-2 lead before Sen battled through to make the score 10-6 before the Malay took another point to be 11-6 ahead at the break. The 26-year-old Malaysian continued to assert dominance as he took a 16-8 lead before jumping ahead 20-11 and taking the bronze medal.
