Lakshya Sen became the first Indian man to reach a badminton semifinal at any Olympics, coming from a game down to beat Chou Tien Chen 19-21 21-15 21-12 in a high-quality quarterfinal at Paris 2024.
In one of the biggest matches of his young career, the 22-year-old raised his game and stayed composed, to put himself one match away from a historic Olympic medal on debut - something he has dreamed off but had to work extremely hard to get close to in the span of a few months.
No other Indian man has been in his position, ever. Remarkably, Lakshya is unseeded in this loaded men's singles draw and was a late entrant in the Race to Paris.
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But on the faster courts of Paris, rankings and Chou's better head-to-head (3-1) didn't matter. Just like against third seed Jonatan Christie two days back. Just like he did at the Thomas Cup and Asian Games team final, when he won World Championship bronze, when he went on his two All England Championship runs.
In the end, Lakshya's superior physical fitness coupled with newly rediscovered self-belief were the biggest assets in a match that lasted 75 minutes. He had the power-packed winners to end the shorter points, the dogged defence to stay in the longer ones and the versatility to oscillate between the two, which proved to a combination too strong for the 34-year-old from Chinese Taipei.
Despite the 12-year age gap between the opponents, the quarterfinal was an intensely physical battle with both players engaging in longer rallies and staying solid in defence to start with and then switching to more proactive play.
It required creative thinking and shot making to win the initial rallies and it was Chou who had the two-point advantage at the mid-game interval after putting Lakshya in uncomfortable positions: not an easy task.
The points got shorter in the second half as both sped up things, which opened up more chances to win points. This is when Lakshya, guided by childhood coaches Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar in Paris, got tactical with his shot placement to draw level at 15-15 and then 19-19. But at the toughest point of any badminton match, Lakshya was outpaced by the veteran.
The second game, starting from the faster side of the court, saw Lakshya zoom to a lead and get niftier with his shots - display a facet of new, improved net play. There was a moment of distraction as Lakshya had words with chair umpire and supervisor after an unsuccessful challenge on the back court which was not shown on the big screen.
This was the kind of that would have derailed his momentum just a few months back, but he didn't let anything faze him as he took a slender 1-point lead at the mid-game interval and then forced a decider with sheer pace of play.
There was variation in his strokes and the wonderful exchanges at the net as the Indian sets up game 6 game points, picking up speed from the faster end.
At the start of the decider, Chou was seen taking deep breaths on the sidelines with his eyes closed as the speed of the action seemed to catch up with the 34-year-old.
The Indian was crafty with his strokes and excellent on defence, with low pick-ups and corner-to-corner defending all over court which ensured that at no point did Chou had a breather.
Lakshya headed into the mid game interval of the decider (and the good side of the court), with a lead of 11-7 and just when Chou's legs were fading, Lakshya was still raring to go. He then clinched it with a smashing cross court winner and after an hour and 15 minutes of play.
There was a lovely moment at the net as he seemed to cheer up Chou and a muted reaction to the win. He knows the enormity of the task still ahead of him. "There's more work to do now, the real test starts. Time to go back recover and be ready for the next match," he said after the match.
Up next could be either defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen - the toughest man to beat in men's badminton today - or former world champion Loh Kean Yew. Neither easy at the biggest stage, but when has that stopped Lakshya, the star of a Thomas Cup-winning Indian team.
Lakshya, the last Indian standing in the badminton arena, has all the reasons to believe he can beat anyone on his day. And these last few days have all been his at Paris 2024.