March 2025. Lakshya Sen faced former champion Li Shi Feng in the men’s singles quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships. All Indian hopes were fixated on the Almora-born. But Lakshya suffered a meltdown, losing the contest to the Chinese without much of a fight.
Fast forward exactly a year. The same tournament, the same protagonists, the same stage. Only this time, the result was different. Top Indian shuttler Lakshya exacted revenge for last year’s loss, beating the sixth seed 21-13, 21-16 in exactly one hour to march into the semi-finals of the Super 1000 tournament, ending a run of three successive losses to the reigning Asian Games champion.
Coming into the Arena Birmingham after two brilliant wins — he had ousted defending champion Shi Yu Qi of China in the opener — Lakshya played some sensational badminton to earn his eighth win in 15 meetings against a rival he has known since his junior days. In fact, Li had beaten Lakshya in the 2018 Youth Olympics final in Buenos Aires.
But on Friday, Lakshya was clearly the better player. The world No.12 moved smoothly, pushing Li to all four corners of the court. Despite making some errors now and then, the unseeded Indian ensured his winners clearly outnumbered his errors.
In a match between two natural defensive players, Li tried to draw Lakshya to the net but the Indian proved far too clever. Lakshya was sublime with his returns, quickly taking an 11-6 lead. But Li won three points on the trot after the break to trail the Indian by just two points at 11-9.
Lakshya was opportunistic, capitalizing on Li’s weak strokes to reach the shuttlecock early at the net and close the game on his first opportunity. In return, Li unleashed some of his killer smashes when he got his chances.
Having played two long, draining matches in the last couple of days, Lakshya clearly looked like he was struggling more than his opponent. But Lakshya used his angled shots well which clearly damaged Li’s confidence. Luck favoured Lakshya as line calls and net cords went in his favour.
Lakshya mustered the remaining energy in his limbs as he pounded smash after smash, winning six points on the trot to close the game in his favour.
Returning to the circuit after a three-month gap due to an ankle injury suffered during the BWF World Tour Finals in December 2025, Li was clearly struggling to take the initiative.
Lakshya was more proactive which let the Indian win more points as he brought in more variation in his shots which caught the Chinese off guard.
Lakshya continued using his reverse slices and drop shots which won him more points as the second game commenced. Just when it felt like Lakshya was slowing down, he found the energy to completely stump his opponent and win points.
Lakshya won five straight points from 1-3 down to go 6-3 up, similar to what he had done towards the end of the opening game. Though Lakshya was slowly inching ahead, Li was not giving in. He tried his best to close in as many times as he could, even going ahead once at 10-9 but the Indian clearly had the upper hand in the flat exchanges. Sliced smashes came to Lakshya’s aid again as both shuttlers tried pushing each other to the limit.
In a test of endurance and contrasting styles, both came up with capable winners, especially the 24-year-old Indian, some of whose shots were sensational. Lakshya won some extraordinary points at the end to close the match in his favour when a tired Li’s howler went out to put the Indian in the semi-finals.
Lakshya will next take on the winner of the match between Japan’s Koki Watanabe and Canada’s Victor Lai in the last four stage.
“Lakshya set a scorching pace from the very beginning, completely unsettling Li Shi Feng. Whenever Li showed a semblance of a comeback — especially during brief phases when Lakshya slowed down — Lakshya quickly raised the tempo again, mixing superb attack with rock-solid defence,” Lakshya’s coach U Vimal Kumar told HT.
“His balance between offence and defence was outstanding today. Even after coming through some very tough earlier matches, Lakshya showed no signs of fatigue and maintained his intensity throughout. It was a match of the highest quality, and Lakshya stayed mentally and physically strong to see it through with great authority.”
