How Lakshya Sen aced the tactical game against Lee Zii Jia
Elite sport watched at the stadium and on TV has no time for your past struggles. For ancient hory or even recent form. Lakshya Sen takes it to another level, scrunching every battle into the big decisive points. The movements are frenetic, but there’s an economy of dramatics otherwise. Lee Zii Jia was felled in the opening set of course with Euclidean geometry. But he hit back to parity.
Sen beat Lee Zii Jia prominently and breathtakingly at 20-19 and other monster big, important points in the semis of the All England. There were tactics to take the lead, tactics to respond to a second set reversal and tactics to render all that redundant going from 12-16 down to 21-19 Third Set & Match.The opener first. Sen was playing into the wind, which means Jii Zia was watching the shuttle move further than he hit with the drift propelling it from behind him. Sen put the fear of the long and wide into Zii Jia’s heart. This was a classic use of compact defense inducing anarchy into the rival’s attack.
Sen picked every shuttle relentlessly that was hit inside the court – to any corner, at every length, with any pace. The idea was not to go for the winners, and constructing them, it was to cramp Zii Jia’s options. Since everything within the rectangular confines was being retrieved, Zii Jia had no option but to target the lines. This needed precision because Sen’s dangling arms were sending the bird back unfailingly.
HE DID IT 😍🔥@lakshya_sen becomes the 5️⃣th 🇮🇳 shuttler to reach the FINALS at @YonexAllEngland as he gets past the defending champion WR-7 🇲🇾’s Lee Zii Jia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19, in the enthralling semifinals encounter 💪
Way to go!🔝#AllEngland2022#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/KL8VB9j2om
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) March 19, 2022
Forced to go for the lines and with the drift not giving him an accurate measure of targetting the tapes, Zii Jia erred massively in the opener. Nine shuttles of the 21 went either long or wide, as the Malaysian aimed at the narrowest of targets on the far flanks of the court. Sen didn’t go chasing, just worked the angles and length that helped induce the sailing shuttle.
At 17-12, Sen had the most dazzling of crouch defenses where he stuck out his hand around the head to send one across the net. Such was the strangling precision of the defense, and with Zii Jia’s elbows tied going for lines, that he finally let frustration show. At 19-12 falling back wildly, Zii Jia pivoted and did a 360 sending a fancy backhand straight into the net. 21-12 down.
With change of ends, Sen was now on the side from where errors ballooned out. But Zii Jia was now using his fancy back to the net, no-see torque releasing, uncoiling backhand with far more exactitude and a blering pace. Opening up the court, he smashed straight on a rampage. There were jump smashes that were a Chen Long – Chong Wei hybrid. And there was the net attack which was exaggerated in its menace and took him far into the set. All that Sen did here was bide his time, get in a few defiant points towards the end, and not get fazed Zii Jia’s defense – including a ‘tweener picked inches off the ground and sent back his way.
What have we just witnessed 🤯
Lakshya Sen is through to the YONEX All England final after beating Lee Zii Jia.
AMAZING! #YAE22 pic.twitter.com/EiKKPzQrB7
— 🏆 Yonex All England Badminton Championships 🏆 (@YonexAllEngland) March 19, 2022
Sen wasn’t flagging in the fast flat exchanges, but he wasn’t overtly getting rattled them either as the speed cranked up considerably from Set 1 to next.
It was in the third that Sen got a little springy about stemming the attack, and possessive about not giving points away. The Indian resumed drawing out errors prolonging rallies and waiting for the make and the reflex angle that would send the shuttle wide or stray it long.
At 8-7 in the decider, Lakshya visibly pulled back from a big smash, sent a clear instead and then in subsequent exchanges bit bit pushed Zii Jia into a corner from where the return would stray.The last of Zii Jia’s cross court backhands came streaking at 372 kph as the acceleration took him to 16-12.
A safe spot, a lulling trap where the Malaysian was now counting the steps of the home stretch and sensing the finish tape. It’s when Sen did a Sen.
The 22-year-old stood his ground unblinking, persing with the net dribbles and finally winning the tight spinning ones to ping Zii Jia. Next came the sting of a reversal as Sen switched to attack. Pointed, preserved and penetrating the comfortable lead the Malaysian had built.
Looming and menacing and charging at the net, this was the only phase of the match where Sen optimised his attack. Like Pullela Gopichand, the last Indian man to make All England finals (and win it) described: “Tactically Lakshya was better. Lee Zii Jia was totally in command, kind of. But Lakshya attacked at the right time and stayed and played the big points well.”
The last spurt of attack needed him to keep deep reserves through the rest of the game. Sen had rationed well. “It’s been an awesome performance. The way he stood his ground. And played the right kind of game, saving his energy,” Gopichand gushed.
