• By Namrata Vijay
  • Sat, 03 Aug 2024 06:51 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Paris Olympics 2024: India's ace shuttler Lakshya Sen scripted history on Friday as he became the first male shuttler to have qualified for the semifinals at the ongoing mega-event. Sen, who has been in sublime form at the Olympics came from behind and defeated the 12th-seeded Chinese Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen on August 2 to inch closer to clinching a medal for the country in this sport. He is the only lone warrior left in the Indian badminton contingent as the men's doubles pair of Satwik-Chirag and PV Sindhu made the quarterfinals exit.

Lakshya will lock horns with Viktor Axelsen in the semifinal. Both the players have a history between them where Lakshya used to train with Axelsen after he failed to make it to the Thomas Cup team and admitted that he learned a lot from the Danish player, which was revealed by his coach Vimal Kumar.

"When he came back, Lakshya did mention the professional approach of Viktor, how intense his sessions were, and how focussed he was during training These are the things that were a real eye-opener for Lakshya," Kumar revealed.

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After winning the match on Friday, Lakshya revealed that the real test for him would start now and playing against Axelsen would be quite challenging, since the youngster is eyeing to win the gold medal. Axelsen, who has remained unbeaten till now, had just one challenging match, and that too against Loh Kean Yew.

Lakshya Sen vs Viktor Axelsen: Head-to-head records

Viktor Axelsen has an upper edge in the head-to-head records against Lakshya Sen as he has won seven matches of 8 that both the players have played against each other. Lakshya had defeated Axelsen just once and that too in the German Open 2022 semifinal by 21-13, 12-21, 22-20.

When they played against each other the last time, Lakshya gave Axelsen a hard time but it was the Danish star, who had the last laugh in the Round of 31 match at the Singapore Open this year with a margin of 21-13, 16-21, 21-13.

Lakshya Sen vs Viktor Axelsen: When and where to watch the semifinal

The men's singles semifinal between Lakshya Sen and Viktor Axelsen will be held on August 4, Sunday and not before noon. This will be the second semifinal as the first one will be held between Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Lee Zii Jia. The match will be telecasted live on Sports 18 network and it will ve live streamed on Jio Cinema.