Lakshya Sen, battered blers, fatigue and an overpowering opponent, goes down to Lin Chun-Yi in final

Lakshya Sen arrived at his second All England final with a tank running low and a painful bler on his foot that made it a miracle that he could stand, let alone prance around the court. The Indian had played a full 91 minutes more than Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei this week, and his restricted movement finally hampered his efficiency and accuracy as he lost 21-15, 22-20, dragging India’s wait for its first All England title beyond 25 years.Chun-Yi brings a left-handed game, that isn’t terribly deceptive, and he doesn’t bother nuancing his smashes. The Taiwanese boasts of some of the hardest hits on the circuit, the crunching power not easily calculable on a measuring machine, but felt on the defenders’ racquet strings. All this week, Sen had been drawing inspiration from his defence, both reflex and anticipated, and refuelling his attack with that confidence. But his court coverage gave him a big, fat bler. Against Chun-Yi, it dented the quality of returns because of how the shuttle thudded on the racquet.
Sen started with some backhand deception at the net, but the Taiwanese started scorching with his cross-court smashes, the angles of which can be disorienting. They can’t be blunted or ricocheted. In the course of the match, Sen unveiled all his defensive tricks – behind-the-back return and even a pirouette. But the subsequent return invariably went into the net because of the poundage behind the smashes coming his way. He wasn’t running as much as retrieving, and barely had to dive. But his wry responses couldn’t take the firepower unleashed on him. Chun-Yi pulled away at 11-16, and pocketed the first game 21-15 as he played basic diagonal men’s singles badminton.
AS IT HAPPENED | LAKSHYA SEN VS LIN CHUN-YI ALL ENGLAND FINAL BADMINTON HIGHLIGHTS
The Indian wasn’t getting his shots to the lines accurately, and that kept the Taiwanese in charge. Sen had started brilliantly with a smash between Chun-Yi’s feet, but he couldn’t repeat the body attack, as he kept going for the lines.
It’s not that Chun-Yi wasn’t error-prone; he smashed wildly wide alright, but his winners when stabbed deep.
Sen did well to take a 10-5 lead in the second, as Chun-Yi’s attack paused like a buffer on low data. But then the Indian inexplicably lost his own radar allowing him a comeback from 6-10 to 8-10. Then again from leading 14-11, Sen allowed the Taiwanese to plonk at the net and control the rallies from there. If there was a gameplan, it was wilting under sustained shelling from the left-handed cannon, as Loh Kean Yew calls Chun-Yi.Story continues below this ad
Last resort
At 14-14, Sen went for broke and increased the pace, forgetting that Chun-Yi isn’t afraid of quick exchanges. His defence might not be as sensational as Sen’s but it’s dependable and can hold strong, till he finds the opening. Chun-Yi stuck on, and even after Sen won a 46-shot rally with a winner on the backline, Chun-Yi was persevering even as Sen played a slightly confused game.
Runner-up Lakshya Sen and Champion Lin Chun Yi of the All England Open 2026. (CREDIT: Badminton Photo)
Sen found parity at 16-16 with a 321 kph smash, but Chun-Yi’s quality of smashing straight and across was getting better and better. For 18-all, the Taiwanese literally sent Sen scurrying to three corners, then sent an irretrievable smash cross-court. A scrambled and scattered poor lift (a rare bad one) from Sen gave Chun-Yi his first match point at 20-19. A defiant Sen retrieved courageously to delay the inevitable.
For his second match point, the two literally flung limbs in all directions and a Sen parry sailed wide. A quick second return from Chun-Yi saw Sen parry wide and that was that.
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Like his early mentor Prakash Padukone, Sen now has two All England finals. But for India, the last champion in Birmingham remains Pullela Gopichand. Sen, though, had an unforgettable week that sets him up nicely for the World Championships at home, after he defeated four different game styles, but perished to the fifth.
Sen conceded Chun-Yi was the better player in the first game.
“It was a good match today. The first game was… I think he was the better player, but in the second game, I could have finished off better,” he told BWF. “But I’m happy with the way I played throughout the week. Pretty emotional right now, thinking about the match. But overall, lots of positives to take.”
He also said his physical condition wasn’t perfect for the final.Story continues below this ad
“Not ideal, to be honest. But when I was playing on court, I was not thinking about anything but to give my best. Yesterday, I was struggling a bit with cramps, but I had some time to recover. And I couldn’t recover 100 percent. Towards the end of the week, all the players are tired with 4-5 matches. It could have been better, but it is what it is.”