Lakshya Sen's impressive run ends in agony at All England final

Lakshya Sen's dream run at the All England Championships ended with a heartbreaking straight-game loss against world number one and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the men's singles final on Sunday, continuing India's 21-year-long agonising wait for the coveted trophy. After four days of sensational badminton, the 20-year-old Sen faltered on the cusp of history as he committed too many errors to go down 10-21 15-21 to former champion Axelsen in a lop-sided summit clash that lasted 53 minutes at the Barclaycard Arena. As it happened"I think the strategy was there. I played him last week but today he was looking solid in attack and defence as well. He was really patient and played a really good game," Sen said after the match. "In the opening game, I committed a lot of errors, that cost me the game. I was there in the second game but again he was too solid for me to put the shuttle down." On Saturday, Sen had become only the fifth Indian after Prakash Nath (1947), Prakash Padukone (1980, 1981), Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Saina Nehwal (2015) to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after outwitting defending champion Lee Zii Jia in a gruelling semifinal. A week back, Sen had recorded his first win over former world champion Axelsen en route to his final appearance at the German Open but he couldn't sustain his craft on Sunday as his highly-fancied rival returned the favours, claiming his fifth overall win against the Indian. "There was a lot of pressure before the match but when I was on court it was just another match for me. I played really crucial match yesterday and that gave me confidence but credit to him for playing a perfect game."

While 2020 winner Axelsen claimed the men's singles title for the