Lakshya Sen (R), Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly in action at All England: BWF / Badminton Photo
A flick of a switch could turn a merry happy-Holi day into a wretched one, and it was the inevitability of power and strength from Chinese shuttlers that brought two decimations inside two hours. First, Lakshya Sen continued the trend of an underwhelming show in big matches, as Li Shifeng whom he’s beaten previously with steady plans, punctured his dreams of a third All England semi-final with a 21-10, 21-16 loss. Then Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand couldn’t escape the peppering that Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning routinely subject the opponents to, in a 21-14, 21-10 win.
While the Treesa-Gayatri result wasn’t shocking given how Liu-Tan are viewed as a pair that will change the basic ethos of women’s doubles through their power-game, the Sen result was worrying as he was neither nursing serious niggles, nor in poor form.
Both 21-10 scorelines will furrow brows. But Sen simply couldn’t stem the flow of errors as he failed to read the arena and the lengths he was expected to strike while going for the backline. Shifeng is an Asiad champion, having tasted success at Super 1000s before. Sen has never won Indonesia or All England before, but he’s always had the tools to stub Shifeng’s power-game, and make it look very piercable. He completely failed to even shake Shifengs defense on the day, and his go-to was the push to the back-line which he couldn’t control — neither the speed of the rush, nor the pelting force of the racquet frame, sending it long.
Nearly half the points he conceded in the opener came from these unforced errors. As a strategy it was worth trying to parry Shifeng back and cut through his defense. But the discipline to keep it within bounds was missing entirely. It’s like speed on tight corners, which needs precise steering and isn’t as straightforward as hitting the next gear, and going with the adrenaline flow to pull off outrageous winners. Like Chen Long before him, and Viktor Axelsen too, Shifeng’s defense is going to acquire economy of movements and absolute sturdiness. Sen stuck to one trick, and even that was scoring wretchedly on execution on the day with the overkill. His lifts were callous and made Shifeng look more formidable in his attack than he is.
Lakshya Sen 🇮🇳 contends against Li Shi Feng 🇨🇳 for a spot in the semifinals. #BWFWorldTour #AllEngland2025 pic.twitter.com/DLeakdgHNF
— BWF (@bwfmedia) March 14, 2025
His best chance was at the net with plenty of variations because in longer rallies with looping dribbles, he could frustrate the Chinese. But scores of 4-11, 9-17 and 10-20 point to a fair amount of cluelessness. The change in sides did nothing to turn the tide, though Sen was in striking distance at 10-11, and known to effect turnarounds. But without Vimal Kumar in his corner, even a 15-15 launchpad was soon frittered away for a 16-20 debacle.
There’s a heady rush associated with how Sen can play — like he did beating Jonatan Christie. But a calm, taller Chinese who just needs to bide his time before swatting Sen aside with a power-attack, was never going to be rolled over.
Of the younger lot jostling to take Axelsen’s crown, Sen has always struggled against Kunlavut and ground down by sheer defense by Kodai Naraoka. The All England loss to Shifeng, is a serious setback, and hitting the gym obsessively might not hold the answers. The game needs work. Resilience and ability to fight back is gone.
Outpowered by Chinese force
For Treesa-Gayatri, it wasn’t the mistakes per se, in fact they did what they could despite a scheduling horror — they finished their last match at 12.30 am IST and were back on court taking on World No.2 at 4.30 pm IST. A 16-hour turnaround time isn’t ideal, but Liu-Tan have literally been sleepwalking towards titles, on the force of their relentless attack that is thrice as hard hit as the next best WD shuttlers.
Jolly/Pullela 🇮🇳 challenge No.2 seeds Liu/Tan 🇨🇳. #BWFWorldTour #AllEngland2025 pic.twitter.com/lRCp5eW1qZ
— BWF (@bwfmedia) March 14, 2025
Like any Chinese, the defense leaves nothing to complain about for their coaches. Treesa would try plenty to vary the ripostes, and Gayatri remained rotationally sound. But there was little for the Indians to do when Liu and Tan soared and rained down smashes right through the middle of the court. It’s like how opponents must feel when Satwik-Chirag go on their smashing offensive. But additionally they foiled Gayatri’s attempts to take control of the net. This one time she moved the breadth of the court, parallel to the net striking down three winners. But she was largely kept at bay by the Chinese.
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Perhaps, slowing them down was a way out. But the Indians did try and not manage to.
It was one of those sobering days when sport made it plain — physical power can completely wipe out opponents. All those 21-7 margins that PV Sindhu notched against Chen Yufei and Nozomi Okuhara — there was little those without power can slip in edgeways into a rally. There was little that was happy about this Holi on the sombre grey courts of Birmingham.
