Serving 3-1 up in the opening game of his Olympic bronze medal encounter against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, Lakshya Sen attempted a high serve against his Malaysian opponent. Sen lifted the shuttle high trying to force a high clear from his backtracking opponent. Lee took a look at the trajectory of the projectile and simply left the shuttle as it sailed over the backline of the court.
Service errors are fleeting in men’s badminton. Lakshya had made one just four points into his match against Lee. Just a day before he had made another service error while three game points up against Viktor Axelsen. The Dane would make the most of his opportunity, save the remainder of the game points and end up winning it. He’d win the match, reach the Olympic finals and end up defending his title from Tokyo.
While Lakshya’s error had come at a critical time against Axelsen, the one against Lee had come very early on. There was enough time to recover. But the fact that he made one at all, suggested there was something in what Axelsen had said a day before about competing in the Olympics.
“These rings, they do funny things”
Indeed they do. Before the Olympic bronze medal match, Lakshya Sen had played Lee five times. He’d beaten the Malaysian in four of them including at their last encounter at the 2024 All England Championship where Lee was a former winner.
Initial service error aside, for about 30 minutes into their Olympic bronze medal match, it looked like Sen was going to coast to another win too. He had taken the first game 21-13 and was up 8-3 in the second. He had all the answers to Lee’s power. He was defending well. The Malaysian seemed at times to doubt his own judgement leaving shuttles that landed inside the court.
Then all of a sudden the momentum shifted. The Malaysian won the next 9 points in a row. Lakshya tried to mount a comeback but there was none. Lee would never trail again. He’d go on to claim the match and the bronze medal 13-21 21-16 21-11 against the Indian.
The shifted happened almost imperceptibly. A moment where Sen was wrong footed by a change of direction from Lee. He still managed to get racquet on the shuttle. But he wasn’t able to control it. 4-8 to Lee. Next point a shuttle is hit with too much power and goes long. 5-8. Now Lee pounces on a clear that has too little power and smashes it violently past the Indian. The momentum had decidedly shifted.
Everything that could go wrong seemed to be going so. Sen had been carrying a bruise on his elbow and it started bleeding on court. As Sen waited for his arm to be bandadged, chants of ‘Malaysia, Malaysia’ rang in his ears.
Lee would take a 12-8 lead but Sen would fight back. He’d close in to 14-15. Then inexplicably he hit another long serve. The first one, early in the match, was perhaps inconsequential. The second won was far from it. The lead extended.
There was no further comebacks to follow.
Lee ran away with the third. You almost pitied the Indian for having to stay on the court. Smashes were missed, line calls were wrongly guessed. “I just didn’t have any answers he’d say later. The end came soon enough.
Lakshya would be later asked what he thought went wrong. He’s played and medalled at the World championships, Asian Games. He’d played and beaten Lee before. Just what difference did the Olympic make. Was there just so much pressure to win medals that he wasn’t able to take? Just how did all of this work? Are the Olympics just that different?
Lakshya had a thousand yard stare and his voice was barely audible over the cheers of the Malaysian fans still celebrating their players’ win. He held on to his injured elbow, the pain of returning without a medal being many magnitudes more intense.
“I don’t know.”
Lee would be asked the same question. “The Olympics are..” he’d says and then pause to collect his thoughts. “They are just different,” he said.
