India's badminton tragedy continues: After Satvik-Chirag, Lakshya Sen out of Asian Games 2026 in second round

Lakshya Sen's Asian Games campaign ended in disappointment on Thursday as the Indian shuttler crashed out in the second round after a three-game loss to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew. Lakshya lost 12-21, 21-15, 14-21, bringing another setback for India after the exit of the country's top-ranked doubles pair, Satwik-Chirag, a day earlier.

The defeat came just a day after the shock exit of former world No. 1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty from the men's doubles, dealing another blow to India's badminton campaign.

Lakshya made a sluggish start to the opening game. After going 5-1 up against Loh Kean Yew, he conceded 11 points in a row to slip to 5-12. He could not recover from that slide and lost the game 12-21.

Lakshya then made a strong comeback in the second game while playing from the far end, winning it 21-15. He was effective in moving the shuttle around and looked far more assured as he pushed the contest into a decider.

In the third game, Lakshya changed over to his favoured side at 7-11 and fought back, with the scores nearly level at 13-14. But he lost concentration again and had no reply to Loh Kean Yew's body attacks. He was trailing 12-14 at one stage, and from there ended up losing the decider 14-21, taking just one point in the next eight.

That made for a sharp contrast to the Lakshya who had looked unbeatable against Japan in the men's team quarter-final, when he gave India a 1-0 lead in the crucial tie. On this occasion, he gave away easy points and never really looked like he was in the fight, as his Asian Games run came to an end in the second round.

Thus, an individual medal at the Asian Games thus continues to elude Sen, who won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and went on to finish fourth at the Paris Olympics.