Paris (France): After being faced with making a fresh start after the deletion of his opening encounter's result, Lakshya Sen stamped his authority in style, securing a comfortable victory over Belgium's Julien Carraggi in straight sets in the men's singles group stage match of the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 on Monday.
Sen's first win of the debut Olympics against Guatemala's Kevin Cordon, a Tokyo Olympics semifinalist, was "deleted" following the Guatemalan rival pulling out his name from the ongoing Summer Games due to a left elbow injury. As a result, the Indian will have to play one extra match compared to the other participants. He will next face world number three Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in his final group match on Wednesday. The match will decide which of the two players moves forward in the competition as only one each from the 16 groups will qualify for the pre-quarters.
The 22-year-old Sen, who is making his Olympic debut, took nearly 43 minutes to beat Carraggi 21-19 21-14 in the Group L match. Sen didn't get the perfect start today and was trailing in the first set against his lower-ranked opponent. But once he settled down and got the rhythm, he brought out his best game and didn't let his Guatemalan opponent come back into the match. Ranked 18th in the world, Sen then wound up the game quickly making it 18-18 and wrapped up the set by with a scoreline read, 21-19.
Having got the momentum, Sen was unstoppable in the second game. He was leading the set 11-4 ahead at the change of ends when he got tips from his star-studded coaching staff featuring Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar. The Belgian resisted briefly and showed some courage to bounce back, but it wasn't enough for him to overcome the deficit and secure a win for his country. In the end, Sen pocketed the game 21-14.
