Leads of 18-16 and 20-18 in the first game and 16-14 in the second for Lakshya Sen proved inadequate during his Indonesia Open quarterfinal against Anders Antonsen on Friday. The bambi-faced, wily geek from Denmark won the all-important endgames to prevail 24-22, 21-18 with a mix of ultra-focused construction of rallies, with some well-orchestrated delays, ruining Sen’s composure.
The Indian, headed to the Olympics, ought to be prepared for all such shenanigans, at Paris, where opponents will crank up the pressure on him in the closing stages if he doesn’t proactively push the gears. In trying to stay defensively solid – which he inevitably does – Sen can forget to up the ante to snatch the crunch points. Antonsen, seeded 4th and a Top-5 opponent, was the latest to catch the Indian on his reluctance to attack.
Sen, who had beaten the Dane at All England, did little wrong to stay in the hunt. He won his first few points making Antonsen go across the body and opening up yawning gaps on the court. The Indian has a somewhat predictable straight smash, but it was working well because of how he was getting Antonsen to scurry all over.
Sen was equal to the task at the net, and got the better of Antonsen in long rallies going from 13-16 down to leading 18-16. The Indian is fearless at the net, but was mostly getting his length right when he took that lead. His serving, for some reason, went wildly wonky after being called three times for a high service fault, and Antonsen did his wicked bit to sow doubts in the chair umpire. Sen simply turned predictable and hesitant in serving thereafter, veering away from his plans to mix up his serves. But at 18-16, he wasn’t in any particular trouble.
Antonsen, meanwhile, was keeping up with a deceptive cross-court drop and smash. He puts a lot of wristwork on the cross shot and deceives opponents into thinking it will drop short, but it actually just squirts out as a full-fledged, non-sliced shot. Sen, rarely boggled, was briefly confused by some of these, but still led 20-18.
It’s here that Antonsen played really boldly, and went for the lines to save two game points. Sen’s defence came good when he picked a relentless flurry of 7 smashes to go up 22-21, but couldn’t quickly morph into offensive mode, which cost him the opener. At 23-22, Sen injected pace, but even that is a predictable ploy, and Antonsen stayed steadfast to hit through him and take the first.
Stuck in second gear
Sen’s round-the-head smashes have somehow disappeared, but it is his reluctance to hit the next gear not just in pace, but in pouncing on the kills that sees him fade out in the endings. In the second game, he once again did all the hard work to reach 16-14. But Antonsen is a wily opponent who does not crack in the endgame in his defence. For his offence, he has the strokes and plenty of utterly made-up reasons to delay in trying to nibble at that lead.
His antics and some pretty solid badminton, where his speed at the net stayed equal to his serenity in defence, saw the Dane collect five straight points at this juncture. Sen tends to look unflappable, but he clearly fell short in once again catching up Antonsen’s 19-16 lead despite reaching 18-19, as he lapsed into acute cluelessness and passivity, right at the business end of the rallies. He almost played two extra shots each rally, and couldn’t summon the kill, sticking to conservative shot selection.
It was tough to deny Antonsen the credit of being bolder at the net, and cunning in between points to throw Sen off. But the Indian knew he needed to do more.
“I’m a bit disappointed with the first game. But towards crucial stages it was good points, not that I could’ve done something different. But whatever best I could I tried. Even in the second game, I had my chances. He was playing very defensive. Fast on the net. Taking on the net. Better at the net. But still, I managed with my defence. But at crucial stages, I had to maybe attack a bit more, to take the initiative, take a few chances,” he told the BWF.
Antonsen, meanwhile, has been losing his fair share of endgames, but was up for this one. “I was telling myself towards the very end of the first game that now is my time. I tried to pump confidence in myself. I’ve lost very close games. Sometimes, margins were not in my favour. But today I kept believing in myself,” he told BWF.
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