Lakshya Sen vs Victor Lai Highlights, All England Open Badminton Semi Final: Lakshya wins gruelling battle 21-16, 18-21, 21-15 in 97 minutes

It had been a 86-shot rally, at 4-4 in the decider, before it absurdly ended with Victor Lai being faulted because the shuttle allegedly clipped his shirt. Lakshya Sen, playing the All England semifinals and gifted that point, would’ve seen it as just another moment on a marathon see-saw, one he could neither get off from, nor stay on top of. It was only the 72nd minute of a match that went on for a total of 97 minutes. It was a random ridiculous punctuation, in what turned out to be sublime display of endurance, grit, and belief of two players who could either be zen-masters or zombies. At the end, Sen reached the finals of All England a second time post a match for the ages.

Read more by Shivani Naik here.

PV Sindhu on X:

That lead will always make a difference mentally haha. What a match from Lakshya. Reminded me of the 2017 world champs final that I lost. Glad he came out on the other side. To win when your legs are cramping is one of the most difficult things in sport, and to see him do that today was phenomenal. He has a phenomenal team around him so I’m sure he’ll be okay. Good luck for tomorrow, Lakshya. Godspeed.

Victor, my heart goes out to you bud. I wouldn’t be too far off in saying you’re the future of men’s badminton with that game. Good luck for what’s ahead

The game 3 graph would tell you that Lakshya stayed ahead throughout but that doesn't begin to describe how tough that was.

A 97-minute marathon!

Lakshya Sen is an All England finalist once again.

SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW, LAKSHYA SEN FOUND SOME ENERGY IN THE END!

Puts the shuttle away from midcourt, for a cross drive winner and he has done it.

Lakshya is two points away!

PV Sindhu on X:

Lakshya loses balance mid-rally and ends uup losing the point while diving to his right. HE is telling the umpire now that he has injured his finger but no treatment allowed as it is deemed to be not bleeding.

Victor Lai's level, which has been insanely high, has also just dipped in this phase while all attention has been on Lakshya's movement. But from 9-15 down, a couple of errors from Lakshya as Victor starts to find his way bac.

Lakshya pulled up in that rally after the restart and limps off the playing area. "Continue playing or retire" says the umpire. And suddenly LAkshya has found a burst of energy with two superb winners.

Looks like Lakshya's physio has joined coach Yoo on the chair in. the past few minutes, perhaps some intervention needed at the change of ends that is iminent.

Crowd starts booing as Victor looks to delay the restart, perhaps he is starting to feel the pace.

After that break, Victor has caught up at 4-4.

WHOA>>> Madness! An 86-shot rally. Absolutely gruelling badminton and it ends with drama. Lakshya charges to the net and hits a kill but Victor Lai gets it back... only for the umpire to intervene and say it hit the Canadian's body. WOW.

This is a decent start to the decider by Lakshya. The longer rallies have been bothering him, he is not getting any easy points but has looked solid enough in these early exchanges.

Second set:

Rallies -

59 shots

67 shots

44 shots (incidentally toughest)

49 shots.

These two!

Shivani Naik: Whatever the final score will be is not going to accurately portray this wringer of a match

Lakshya with a crazy retrieval early in ANOTHER LOMNG RALLY! (49 shots) But Victor eventually finds the winner.

Two game points for the Canadian.

Even as the match seems to be turning in favour of Victor Lai, this has been a wonderful semifinal. Some of the defending from both players has been ridiculous.

Victor goes to within two points of taking the game with a super precise smash that has caught the line. Lakshya uses up his remaining review.

Victor has lost a challenge now as he lets the shuttle drop on the backline and hawkeye is on Lakshya's side. That has caught the line. Nice changes of direction in that rally from Lakshya.

And the Indian has found a second wind now! He has caught up with a lovely backhand kill after a slice drop that drew Victor forward.

Oh dear.... SERVICE FAULT FOR HEIGHT FROM LAKSHYA! what a time to do that. Victor takes the lead at 17-16

Lakshya pounces at the net after another gruelling rally and closes the gap down to 2.

Oh big error from Lakshya mid-rally at 12-14 as he retrieves the shuttle that was very obviously going wide and then ends up missing the sideline himself. Glances at his coach to ask if that was the case.

ANOTHER LONG RALLY! And the longest yet. 67 shots! Victor with some more sensational defending at the net, every time Lakshya drew him forward, the Canadian got there and lifted it deep to negate Lakshya's advantage.

There we go, Lakshya is fighting back. Three straight points after the interval and the gap is down to one point. A long rally again for 10-11 and Lakshya is now very evidently not moving at his best but still doing enough to move Victor around on the court.

Shivani Naik: Blister in the shoe, Sen tells the chair umpire.

"Can I open my shoe?" He asked.

WHAT A RALLY! Sensational defending again by Victor as he wins a superb 59-shot rally and Lakshya seems to be struggling with blisters in his feet. This game is starting to turn. The Canadian's defence has been exceptional and he somehow got up after a dive and read a crosscourt from Lakshya while going in the other direction. Remarkable.

Oh dear, Lakshya is calling for the doctor for what it appears to be blisters on his feet. But I doubt the tournament referee would allow the doctor to treat that. He takes off his shoe, adjusts the tape and has to get back on court.

His movement has been sensational this week but this could change things.

Here's how the opening game panned out.

WOW! That is a superb winner from Lakshya! Another longish rally and this time Lakshya comes up with the most elegant crosscourt touch at the top of the net to catch Victor on the backfoot. He was expecting the kill at the net.

Victor loses both his reviews as he challenges a call that was long on the backline... poor review again at this stage. Lakshya catches up at 14-all and after another longish rally (39 shots) edges back into the lead with a smash that pinged off his racket. That was to Victor's forehand and the winner in the next rally is a similarly struck smash to Victor's backhand.

Another long rally and this time it is Victor who overhits the backhand.

But from 11-13, the Canadian has once again caught up with a superb smash. And what do you know, he now has the lead too as Lakshya tries to oncrease the tempo and ends up smashing it wide.

Lakshya takes the smallest of leads into the mid-game interval. Victor tried to inject pace from midcourt but Lakshya is ready for it – this has been a feature of his play this week, an almost doubles-esque nature to his game added presumably by coach Yoo Yong Sung. A reflex block into the empty corner gives him the point.

Oh that's a ridiculously good exchange at the net from both players but the shuttle just falls back on Lakshya's side after dangling at the top of the net cord. Level at 7 now.

Lakshya moves ahead with a smash to Victor's backhand that doesn't cross the net but misses the straight smash to the other flank next rally as Victor levels it up at 8 all.

Neither player is able to win consecutive rallies at this stage as Victor misses an inside-out halfsmash to Lakshya's backhand.

Victor burns a review early as Lakshya inches ahead but little to separate these two in the early stages.

Lakshya ups the intensity next rally and starts injecting pace early on but Victor's defence is super solid and he finishes the point with a delightful reverse slice drop.

Lakshya retakes the lead with a super body attack.

If that first rally is anytthing to go by, we are in for the long haul here. They didn't show the rally count but easily more than 50 shots. Patience from both players, nothing extravagant, a lucky net cord in the middle for Lakshya and he eventually takes the point.

Victor comes back with a couple of points and then gives over the serve with an unforced error from midcourt.

Shivani Naik writes: Taiwan gets its second All England finalist after Lin Chun-Yi, in the mixed doubles pair of Ye-Chan.

Bears remembering that at least 10 XD pairs, and almost equal number of MD and WD pairs had been playing on the second tier European circuit since 2024 and most of 2025, before a result like All England final fetches up.

Lakshya Sen's path to the final:

The mixed doubles semifinal is done and now it is time for Lakshya Sen vs Victor Lai.

So little to choose between the two pairs as the mixed doubles semifinal enters the final stretch.

Shivani Naik: The Mandarin Badminton Club where Victor Lai trains in Ontario, has only 6 courts under former Guangzhou shuttler Chen Kang, a Barcelona Olympian and Thomas Cup champion, and silver medallist at All England in 1993, and ABC champ in 1994. But their gym is to die for! It's a candystore for lifters. Victor Lai though is coached by Chau Hoi Wah Cathy, a mixed doubles shuttler whose first title came in Mongolia.

Coach Vimal Kumar after Sen’s win over Li Shifeng

“Lakshya set a scorching pace from the very beginning, completely unsettling Li Shi Feng. Whenever Li showed a semblance of a comeback — especially during brief phases when Lakshya slowed down — Lakshya quickly raised the tempo again, mixing superb attack with rock-solid defence. His balance between offence and defence was outstanding today. Even after coming through some very tough earlier matches, Lakshya showed no signs of fatigue and maintained his intensity throughout. It was a match of the highest quality, and Lakshya stayed mentally and physically strong to see it through with great authority.”

(Via Shivani Naik)

At the start of the week, Lakshya got the better of world No 1 Shi Yu Qi in the opening round. Watch highlights of that win:

“Happy with the way I played both sets. But credit to him he played well. Like he played a very solid game with quite some long rallies,” Sen told BWF. The key was in responding to an improved, spirited opponent. “Both of us were getting tired. But happy with how I stuck on there with long rallies. Coach was also saying be extra prepared after long rallies because even he is tired. So don’t give any easy mistakes,” Lakshya said yesterday.

Lakshya's semifinal will begin after this mixed doubles semifinal. Mixed doubles has witnessed some crazy results too this week. We actually won't have a Chinese finalist in a discipline they have dominated for a long time. French duo Gicquel and Delrue are already in the title clash.

Lin Chun Yi is at it again! After his India Open triumph earlier this year, he has now made it to the All England final. The lefty from TPE is so hard to beat when he is in the zone and he's taken down the last seed in men's singles, Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

And welcome to our live coverage of Indian badminton. It's been a fine week for Lakshya Sen in Birmingham as he has made it to the semifinal of the prestigious tournament for the third time in his career. And pulling off some impressive wins along the way.

Can he go one step further? A semifinal awaits against Canada's Victor Lai.

Match expected to start around 6.30 pm IST.