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Indian Badminton star Lakshya Sen registered a 21-18, 21-12 against Indonesia's Jonathan Christie at the Paris Olympics 2024. The 22-year-old started as the underdog in the contest as the Indonesian had defeated him four times to the Indian's one victory. With this result, Sen qualified for the pre-quarterfinals stage at the Summer Games.
Right out of the gate, Sen was under pressure as Johnathan Christie took an 8-2 lead before the Indian stitched up a comeback. The 22-year-old rocked back into the contest with seven straight points before the pair went blow for blow into the break. This tussle continued which included a 58-shot rally before the scores were level at 16-16 and then 18-18. In the final moments, Sen zoomed forward to clinch Game 1 21-18.
Building on this momentum, Lakshya Sen jumped to 11-6 after a tight start. After the break, Christie mounted a comeback to make the score 13-9. But Sen was quick to shut down the rallying Indonesian to take a 17-9 lead and then held his nerve to clinch the win with a 21-12 margin and qualify for the Round of 16 stage.
In his previous match, Sen took down Julian Carraggi of Belgium with a 21-19, 21-14 margin. But the 22-year-old saw his first game be deleted after the Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon pulled out of the Olympics. As per BWF General Competition Regulations for the group stage, the results of all matches played, or yet to be played, involving Cordon in Group L are now considered deleted as he withdrew from the event after an elbow injury.
The specific regulation for the situation, Rule no 16.2.5, states “If illness, injury, disqualification or other unavoidable hindrance prevents a Player/pair completing all the group matches, all the results of that Player/pair shall be deleted. Retiring during a match shall be considered to be not completing all group matches.”
