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Lakshya Sen, ranked 10 in the world, edged Malaysia's 42nd-ranked Tze Yong NG 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 in an enthralling badminton men's singles final to win the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham on Monday, August 8.
Yong has been a giant-killer throughout his CWG 2022 campaign, dispatching former world champion Kean Yew Loh as well as India's Kidambi Srikanth. He made his intentions clear by making a confident start against Sen as well.
The former Asian junior champion, however, didn't let it deter him from making a phenomenal comeback and added a gold medal to India's tally.
Social media quite expectedly went into a frenzy on witnessing the sterling performance from the 20-year-old Indian shuttler. Comments on Twitter poured in by the minute as fans kept lauding Sen's fighting spirit and determination.
Here are some of the reactions:
Lakshya Sen becomes 4th Indian shuttler to win CWG men's singles gold
Lakshya Sen has had a sensational few months on the badminton circuit. He collected a prized bronze medal at the World Championships last year and began the new season on a high by winning the India Open title at home.
He also made the finals at the All England Open and the German Open, apart from being a part of India's history-making Thomas Cup team.
With so much momentum behind him, the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy product was expected to create ripples in Birmingham on his CWG debut.
As the second seed, Sen was the heavy favorite to take the men's singles gold but it didn't come easy for him.
The World No. 10 was put into a spot of bother by Yong, whose superb deception at the net, coupled with his aggressive play, made life difficult for the Indian. It was only after the interval in the second game that Sen freed up and started to look more confident.
He won 10 points on the trot to bag the second game 21-9, truly imposing his authority as the match headed to a decider.
Lakshya Sen made a positive start to the final game as well but couldn't put away Yong, who was always on his heels. From 11-7, the second seed slowly pulled away to 15-9 before a re-energized Yong bagged a few points. With unforced errors creeping up in the Malaysian's game, Sen increased his lead to 19-14 and confidently shut out the match.
Sen's heroics brought India a second gold medal in badminton at the ongoing Birmingham Games after PV Sindhu won the women's singles gold earlier in the day.
He joins his mentor Prakash Padukone (1978), Syed Modi (1982) and Parupalli Kashyap (2014) as the fourth Indian shuttler to clinch the men's singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Read: CWG 2022: "What a Legend"- Twitter can't stop appreciating women's singles champion PV Sindhu
