Paris: Shuttler Lakshya Sen lost against world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia on Monday. Sen had gone down to defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men's singles semi-final at the Paris 2024 badminton tournament on Sunday. Sen, who is ranked 22nd in the badminton rankings, lost to world No. 2 Axelsen 22-20, 21-14 in 54 minutes at the La Chapelle Arena.

The Indian shuttler came close but ended up too far from etching his name in the history books following his 21-13, 16-21, 11-21 loss against Malaysia's Zii Jia Lee and finished fourth in the event.

The 22-year-old Sen could still become the first Indian badminton player to win an Olympic medal in the men's event. Lakshya Sen has a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Malaysian, including a win at the All-England Open earlier this year, as per the Olympic.com.

In the quarter-finals, the unseeded Lakshya Sen defeated Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-Chen in a hard-fought three-game encounter.

As a result, he became the first Indian shuttler to reach the badminton men's singles semi-finals at the Summer Games. Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth previously reached the quarter-finals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, respectively, as per Olympic.com.

Sen, in his Olympic debut, topped his men's singles group, by beating reigning All England champion and world No. 4 Jonatan Christie. He also got the better of his compatriot HS Prannoy in the round of 16. ANI

(With inputs from ANI)