Lakshya Sen puts up a valiant show despite running on empty, falls to Lin Chun-Yi in All England final

Birmingham, England – For 57 gripping minutes on Sunday, Lakshya Sen carried the hopes of Indian badminton on blistered feet and sheer willpower, before bowing 15-21, 20-22 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in the All England Championship final. The result denied Sen a historic first singles crown for India at the world’s oldest tournament, yet the 24-year-old’s refusal to yield despite a body running at barely 60 percent fitness wrote a story every bit as compelling as the title itself.

Playing his second All England final after finishing runner-up in 2022, Sen entered the arena at Utilita Arena Birmingham with visible tape on his right foot and a tournament-long tally of five hours 18 minutes already logged on court. The after-effects of Saturday’s draining semifinal win over Canada’s Victor Lai were evident from the first rally: the Indian’s lateral movement lacked its customary snap, and the customary dive on the forehand flank—so often his signature—was abandoned entirely.

Lin, a left-hander and reigning India Open champion, pounced immediately. Targeting Sen’s compromised right side with angled smashes and deft net kills, the Taiwanese raced to a 4-1 lead and reached the interval 11-9. A burst of four unanswered points after the break stretched the advantage to 15-10; when Sen closed to 13-16, Lin reeled off three of the next four points to pocket the opener 21-15.

The second stanza offered a different narrative. Freed from the shackles of tension, Sen unfurled a sequence of searing smashes and wristy drop shots that had the crowd roaring in disbelief. He led for the first time at 6-5, then surged ahead 10-5 as Lin misfired a trio of regulation lifts. At 14-10 the comeback felt real; at 18-18 the arena crackled with anticipation.

A jaw-dropping round-the-head winner from Lin and a thunderous Sen reply made it 19-19. The Indian saved championship point at 19-20 with a forehand kill that scraped the tape, but on Lin’s second opportunity at 21-20, Sen misjudged the shuttle’s trajectory and pushed a backhand wide. The Taipei shuttler collapsed in celebration, becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei ever to claim the All England singles crown, minutes after compatriots Ye Hong Wei and Nicole Gonzales Chan had stunned the doubles field as unseeded mixed champions.

“I’m pretty emotional right now to think about the match,” Sen admitted afterward, voice cracking. “In the first set he was the better player. I could have finished the second set better. But I’m happy with the way I played the whole week. My physical condition was not ideal, but when I was on court I only thought about giving my best.”

Coach Vimal Kumar had warned beforehand that his charge was “100 percent mentally strong but only 60 percent physically,” a prophecy borne out as cramps resurfaced late in the contest. “Yesterday I was struggling with cramps,” Sen confirmed. “Though I got some time to recover, I could not recover 100 percent.”

Lin’s tactics were ruthlessly efficient: keep the shuttle deep to Sen’s forehand, coax the Indian into multi-shot rallies, and accelerate once the legs inevitably slowed. The strategy yielded 42 winners, many carved from the very right corner Sen protected with caution rather than crouch.

Still, the Indian departed to a standing ovation, having again reached a summit few compatriots have scaled. Runner-up in 2022, finalist again in 2024, Sen’s resilience suggests the breakthrough may be a matter of health rather than heritage.

For now, the All England trophy heads to Taipei. For Indian badminton, the wait endures—but the conviction that it will soon be broken has never felt stronger.