India’s young gun Lakshya Sen came out victorious in an enthralling match against Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong to clinch the gold medal in the men’s singles event at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham. The Indian shuttler prevailed in 3 games with a final score of 19-21, 21-9, 21-16.
The match started with immense pace at a noisy NEC Arena at Solihull as both players were looking to go aggressive. The first game went neck and neck as it saw a lot of intensive rallies. Sen trailed Ng Tze Yong at 15-17 only to go ahead 19-18 in the first game, but couldn’t hold on as he misjudged a long forehand from the Malaysian to drop the first game 21-19.
The second game started in similar fashion and as Sen was 6-8 down, the momentum started to shift as he capitalized on some unforced errors made by Ng Tze Yong to go into the interval with a two point advantage at 11-9. Then it was the Sen show as he clinched the third game 21-9 winning 15 of the last 16 points. It seemed Tze Yong was nursing a slight tear on his left knee and also had some strapping. He looked to regain his composure in the deciding game.
Which he did. After a tight start, Sen started to create a gap as he went into an 8-4 lead. The players went into the interval for the final time with Sen leading 11-7. The Indian came out with full grunt as he went on to take a 6 point lead. Towards the end of the match, Ng Tze Yong received medical attention to his knee but kept going. But the damage was already done as Lakshya Sen finished off in style to take the third and deciding game 21-16.
Another superb performance to go one better than last year’s men’s singles event where Srikanth Kidambi went down fighting to Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei to claim the silver. Srikanth also backed up India’s performance with a bronze after beating Singapore’s Jia Heng Teh 21-15, 21-18.
Image credit: Twitter/InsideSportIND
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