Lakshya Sen finishes runners up at the Yonex Dutch Open

The finals of the Yonex Dutch Open 2021 was highly anticipated with Indian badminton prodigy Lakshya in contention to win the tournament. It proved too much however as his opponent Loh Kean Yew got the better of him in the contest with a 21-12, 21-16 victory.

The first set began with both shuttlers vying to take an early lead. It was Kean who made the first break through with an 8-2 lead as he continued to make Lakshya run across the court with his tactful play. There were several unforced errors from Lakshya's end as he tried to fight back with his own coach's advice and strategy. However, it was either the net or outside line that saw the end of the shuttle. The score was 20-10 with Koh needing the final game point to win the first set. Lakshya fought back to make it 20-12 but it was too big a lead to catch up to.

Game 2 began with Loh Kean Yew continuing his aggressive game against Lakshya. However, Lakshya was not having any of it this time. The first 8 points ended with the score being 4-4. Neither shuttler took a considerable lead and the trend of tied scores continued until Loh took the lead of 7-5. Lakshya knew he could not afford another breakaway and fought back with the scores being 8-7. Going into the break, the score was 11-8 in favour of Loh with Lakshya keeping himself in the fight.

This however did not continue as Loh came back in the second half to take a 16-8 lead before Lakshya put an end to it by gaining 2 points. This further went to 17-13 with Loh doing everything he could to keep Lakshya at bay. Time was running out for Lakshya as he took the score to 19-15 but succumbed to a match point. It was extremely intense but unfortunately Lakshya lost out with a second set score of 21-16.