Reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen predicted a gold medal for India's Lakshya Sen in the next Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028 after beating the young shuttler in straight games in the badminton men's singles semi-final at Paris Olympics 2024 on Sunday. Axelsen was trailing in both games, but the ace shuttler from Denmark scripted stunning comebacks to win both games (22-20 and 21-14) and close out the match that lasted 54 minutes.

At one point, Lakshya led 15-9 in the first game. From then on, Axelsen scored four straight points. Lakshya maintained his lead and was three points away from winning the opening game, but Axelsen held his nerve and took advantage of a few unforced errors from the 22-year-old Indian to draw first blood 22-20.

In the second game too, Lakshya took a huge 7-0 lead before Axelsen staged another comeback. Of the next 28 points, the Dane won 21 to win the game 21-14.

The second seed called the semi-final against Lakshya his toughest match at the Paris Olympics so far. “Definitely (the toughest match for me in Paris so far). Lakshya started so well, but I was able to relax in the 2nd game," the 30-year-old told Jio Cinema.

Axelsen, who is one-step away from joining Chinese legend Lin Dan as a two-time gold medallist, then went on to name Lakshya as a gold-medal contender for the next Games in LA.

“Lakshya is an amazing player. He has shown in this Olympics that he is a very, very strong competitor and I am sure in four years from now, he will be one of the favourites to win the gold. An amazing talent and a great guy and I wish him all the best,” he added.

Axelsen knows a thing or two about handling pressure and said his experience helped him to stave off the stiff challenge from Sen, who seemed nervous despite looking the better player for a major part of their semifinal clash.

"I think the experience made a difference today. I think Lakshya, he played better than I did in big parts of the game. So he could have won the match," said Axelsen

Sen will get another chance to become the first Indian male shuttler to win an Olympic medal when he meets Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the bronze medal playoff.

India have never won an Olympic gold medal in badminton with PV Sindhu claiming a silver and bronze at the Rio and Tokyo editions and Saina Nehwal securing a bronze in the London Games.

It was Sen's eighth loss to the Danish star with the Indian beating him only once at the 2022 German Open final.

"If I would have closed the first game, then I would have had better chance of closing the match. In the second game also, I started well but couldn't keep the lead," Sen told the broadcaster after the contest.

About losing the first game after being 20-17 ahead, Sen said "As the game went on, he started attacking more and I became passive, only defending. I should have taken chances and attacked more."

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