India suffered a major setback on August 5 at the Paris Olympics 2024 when star shuttler Lakshya Sen lost to world number seven Malaysian Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match. Lakshya Sen had raised medal hopes by winning the first game, but in the second game, his hand started bleeding and a bandage was also tied. Lakshya lost 21-13, 16-21, 21-11. With this, Lakshya Sen also missed out on becoming the first male player to win a medal for India in the men's singles event of badminton. On the other hand, Lee Zii Jia won his maiden Olympic medal.
Lakshya Sen dominated in the first set
Lakshya Sen opened the account by scoring the first point in the first game. After this, when the score became 2-3, Lakshya Sen took three consecutive points and made the score 6-2 in his favour. The Malaysian player tried his best to make a comeback but Lakshya continued the attack with strong defense and took a lead of 11-5. After this, the Malaysian player showed some great smashes but he was far behind Lakshya. Lakshya maintained his dominance till the end and won the first game 21-13.
Lee Zii Jia scored 9 consecutive points in the second game
Lakshya Sen scored the first point in the second game as well. After this, Lakshya again continued to attack and after the score became 1-1, he scored six consecutive points and took a strong lead of 7-1 right from the beginning. But after falling behind 3-8, Lee Zii Jia played a strong game and kept Lakshya Sen away by playing long rallies with fast smashes and scored 9 consecutive points and took a lead of 12-8. Then Lee Zii Jia's shot went out of the court and Lakshya took a review and scored a point after a long time and made the score 9-12. Then when the match was tied at 12-12, the Malaysian player attacked Lakshya and took a lead of 14-12.
Blood oozed out from Lakshya Sen's elbow and he lost the second game
During the match, blood started oozing from Lakshya Sen's elbow and the blood was clearly visible in the tape on his injury. Then when Lakshya Sen was trailing 16-19 in the score, his injury was treated and a bandage was tied. However, the Malaysian player did not give him a chance to make a comeback and won the second game against Lakshya by 21-16.
Lee Zii Jia's domination in the third game
In the third game, Lee Zii Jia showed a strong attack and brilliant play in the back line and nets and scored six consecutive points when the score was 3-2 and took a strong lead of 9-2 against Lakshya Sen. After this, Lakshya Sen did score some points but the Malaysian player went to every corner of the court and did not let the shuttle fall towards him, while he took a lead of 16-8 by answering every shot of Lakshya. It became very difficult for Lakshya to make a comeback and in the end the Malaysian player defeated Lakshya 21-11 and won the bronze medal.
Lakshya Sen's journey in the Paris Olympics
Lakshya Sen defeated Tokyo Olympics 2020 semi-finalist Kevin Cardon in the first match. But due to Kevin's injury, Sen had to play an extra match. After this, Lakshya defeated Belgium's Julien Carraggi and then world number four Jonatan Christie and knocked them out. After the group stage, Lakshya Sen defeated Chinese Taipei player Chou Tien-chen in the quarter-finals to make it to the semi-finals. In the semi-final match, Lakshya Sen was knocked out by Viktor Axelsen in straight games.
Lee Zii Jia vs Lakshya Sen head-to-head
A total of five matches have been played between Lakshya Sen and Malaysia's Lee Ji Jia so far. In which Lakshya Sen won four matches and Lakshya Sen lost to him in Thomas Cup 2022. But after this Lakshya Sen defeated Jia in Indonesia Open 2023 and All England Open 2024.
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