Viktor Axelsen is the undisputed master and he showed his class, control and magic in the All England Championship final in Birmingham, thrashing India’s hope Lakshya Sen 21-10, 21-15 in a one-sided affair. Sen had defeated the 6’4″ Danish star at the German Open last week, but on Sunday the Axelsen was simply unplayable. Sen tried all sorts of tricks, all sorts of variations, but he was always two steps behind Axelsen all the time.
By the time Sen could even gather himself, Axelsen had raced off to a 6-0 lead and extended it to 10-2 in no time. Serving low backhand serves, Axelsen kept the 20-year-old Indian guessing all the time, deceiving Sen with direction, speed and depth of the serve. Coupled with his fast movement all across the court, Sen looked puzzled. Unforced errors crept up for Sen every time he attempted to lift or toss close to the baseline. And if those shots were slightly in, Axelsen hammered the hell out of the shuttle. Sen was caught between the devil and the deep sea.
He tried to control the net but Axelsen negated such thoughts as he pinned down the lad from Almora to the deep baseline and took control of the net himself. He won the first game 21-10, with no threat coming from Sen who was forced to play catch up all the time.
The steeply angled smashes of Axelsen just kissed the sidelines, and if at all Sen was able to somehow get the shuttle over the net, Axelsen just pushed the shuttle deep, to the far side of the empty court, positioning himself to smash if at all Sen was able to retrieve. Sen tried to hang in there playing long rallies, but they too were dominated by the Dane. The anticipation of Axelsen was astounding, to say the least. He knew exactly what the intentions of Sen were.
In the second game too, despite some rallies going up to 50-60 strokes and 70, the story was the same. Sen did try to change tactics and alternatively played slower rallies with his tosses, and then a few aggressive ones with a lot of half smashes and downward fast-moving drops, but nothing troubled Axelsen as he raced towards his second All England title in style. This was the 28-year-old’s fourth consecutive final at the Birmingham stadium.
Whether Sen played from the good side with the drift behind him or from the other, it simply did not bother Axelsen. In this all England he was in a zone of his own. He did not lose a single game in the entire week. Axelsen did not allow Sen to settle down and play with any meaningful strategy. Even the signature stroke of Sen, the overhead crosscourt full-blooded smash which often finds the opponents napping, did not find favour with Axelsen.
In the second game, there was a fantastic rally at 17-12 where Sen dived all over the court, returning six bullet smashes, but ultimately lost the point after the tall Dane hit a thundering scorcher timed at a mind-boggling 416 km per hour.
The Olympic and former world champion had eight championship points at 20-12 in the second game before the last moment desperate fightback from Sen got him three straight points, but he could only delay the inevitable. Axelsen was the most deserving champion.
For Sen, it may be a numbing loss, but he will be proud of the fact that he gave his all through the week. He has had a terrific run from the Dutch Open, having played in four finals (Dutch Open, Indian Open, German Open and the All England) winning one of them; two semifinals (Hylo and BWF World Tour Finals). He defeated every top player in the world during this time frame, including Axelsen.
The legendary Prakash Padukone, who saw a spark in Sen when the boy, aged 9, came to his academy in Bangalore, mentored, coached and nursed him to become the champion he is now was beaming with pride talking about the youngster’s achievements, “Over the past six months or so as the international Circuit has been revived and Lakshya has been one of the most consistent players. He had truly announced his arrival at the big stage, but the challenge for him begins now. Lakshya is hard working, focussed, disciplined, dedicated, grounded and most importantly mentally very strong even while playing against players higher ranked than him.”
And Sen had shown these qualities in abundance at All England when he defeated the 3rd seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark and last year’s champion Lee Zhi Jia of Malaysia, who was seeded 6th his year. Sen is only the fourth Indian to reach finals at All England after Prakash Nath in 1947, Padukone in 1980, 1981 and Pullela Gopichand in 2000. There is no doubt that he will win here in the next couple of years.
DOUBLES DELIGHT
History was also written by the teenage pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly in the women’s doubles. This young pair was in the reserve list for All England, but the last moment withdrawal of players from the main list gave them the opportunity to play in the main draw and they made the most of the opportunity and showed their calibre. They too announced their arrival at the big stage reaching the semifinals.
The duo combine really well this week and there was good synchronization between them, with Gopichand controlling the net, leaving Jolly to provide the artillery from baseline. Both of them showed good defence and the ability to turn defence into an attack at the opportune time. Both have a natural doubles game and they revelled in it.
In the first match, they were not able to attack well, as the full force drive shots from the Aimsaard sisters of Thailand (Benyapa and Nuntakarn), were hit with such brutal force that the Indian girls were not able to counter it and went on to lose the first game 17-21. The Indian par was down 12-18 in the second game as well, but they were on full mode attack from there and that paid off. They took the second game 22-20 and in the decider played at a breakneck pace to cruise home 21-14.
In the pre-quarter against the 6th seed Greysa Poli and Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia, they lost the first game 18-21 but were leading the second 19-14 when Poli’s injury meant the Indonesian pair had to withdraw. Their biggest test came against the 2nd seeded Korean pair of Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchang, the 2021 World Championship silver medallists.
Gayatri Gopichand is a chip off the old block. Her father Pullela Gopichand who won the All England in 2000, never really bothered about the opponent or their rankings. He had self-belief and played to his ability. A remarkable judge of the young players, the chief national coach told Gayatri to play doubles only, as, in his opinion, she was a natural at doubles. Similar to her father, Gayatri too is usually unperturbed with her opponent’s stature. She and Jolly usually dig in and play their best possible badminton.
They lost the first game 14-21 to the experienced Koreans, but came back strong as ever, fighting for every point to take the second game 22-20. The 18-year-old Jolly kept on smashing strong, while the 19-year-old Gayatri kept on creating the openings. A vice-like grip ensured they claimed the decider 21-15. The girls play with great determination and with some tight serves controlled the game. Between them, they know which partner will take the shuttle coming between the two, which is actually the trickiest area in doubles.
One good thing about them is that they try to attack and play positive badminton. This means good serves and service returns, and the ability to block the incoming shots close to the net and force a lift so that their defence turns to attack. In the semifinals they lost to the Chinese pair of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu, 17-21, 16-21, they created history becoming the first-ever Indian pair to reach the semifinals of All England. Clearly, the girls have a great future and all they need now is more experience and little more body strength.
In the men’s doubles, India’s brightest hope – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fell in the pre-quarters World number 1 pair of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo for the 11th straight time. The Indian pair blew away a six-point lead, allowing the Indonesian pair to seal the first game 24-22. The top seeds won the second game 21-17. The other Indian pairs in fray – Krishna Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Panjala and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila fell in the first round, respectively.
In women’s singles, it was really nice to see veteran star Saina Nehwal show some spark, the same magical presence on the court. She turned the clock back while taking the mighty Akane Yamaguchi to three games. The speed was there, the body was well tuned and the netplay was back More importantly the zeal to win was back. She was moving around the court like Saina of yesteryears. She eventually lost in 58 minutes 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 in round 2.
PV Sindhu defeated Chinese player Wang Zhi Yi 21-8,21-13 in the first round and one thought that she will revive the passion and aggression of Sindhu of 2016-17 and 2018-19 and 2020 the years which saw her capturing two Olympic medals, world championship gold and many other titles. But she faltered, losing to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi, 19-21, 21-16, 17-21.
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