What went wrong for Lakshya Sen at Asian Games 2026?

Lakshya Sen lost to Loh Kean Yew in the second round

Lakshya Sen’s Asian Games 2026 campaign ended in that particular kind of sporting heartbreak—not in being outclassed, but in coming agonisingly close to victory only to fall short at the final hurdle.

On Saturday morning at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium, his individual campaign came to an end with a three-game defeat to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, 12-21, 21-15, 14-21.

For a few minutes, it looked like everything was brewing in Sen’s favour. He jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the opening game against Loh, a former world champion known for his calm under pressure.

Also Read: Badminton at Asian Games 2026: Full schedule, fixtures, results, live streaming details

It was a fast start, but it vanished almost as quickly as it arrived. Loh strung together 10 straight points, turned a four-point deficit into a commanding lead, and closed out the first game 21-12 with something close to ease.

That sequence, more than anything else, set the tone for the whole match. Sen had shown he could hurt Loh early. He just could not make it count.

A fightback that meant something

Credit to Sen; he refused to fold. He raised his intensity in the second game, matched Loh through a tense, closely contested middle phase, before finding another gear in the closing stages to take it 21-15.

It forced a decider, and it did so on merit, built from sustained pressure rather than any slip from his opponent. For a while, it genuinely felt like the momentum had swung his way.

This is often the most telling part of a defeat like this one. Not the game a player loses badly, but the one he wins convincingly, because it proves what he was capable of all along.

Related: PV Sindhu’s projected path to gold medal at Asian Games 2026

The decider slips away

The decider followed a familiar pattern, with Loh making an early move and carrying an advantage into the change of ends.

Sen responded with real fight, reeling off four straight points, helped along by a couple of uncharacteristic errors from Loh, to level things at 13-14. For a moment, it looked like the second game script might repeat itself.

It did not. Loh steadied himself, regained control of the exchanges, and pulled away again down the stretch, closing out the match 21-14 with Sen finding the net on the final rally. Loh needed an hour and 10 minutes to complete the victory.

Reading between the scorelines

None of this happened in a vacuum. Sen had already given a great deal to this tournament by the time this match began.

He had been part of the Indian team that won bronze in the men’s team event just a few days earlier, and that physical and mental workload can inevitably take its toll by the time the individual draw begins.

There is also the broader question of timing within India’s badminton campaign. Just a day before Sen’s exit, the country’s top-ranked men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, had also fallen in an early round.

Also Read: Asian Games 2026: What went wrong for Satwik-Chirag in opening-round exit?

A couple of big losses inside 24 hours made for a tough stretch for Indian badminton at these games.

And then there is the shape of Sen’s career itself. This is a player who already boasts a Commonwealth Games gold from 2022, a fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, a team silver from the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, and now a fresh team bronze to add to his résumé.

What has continued to elude him, though, is an individual medal at the Asian Games. Saturday’s defeat, marked by flashes of genuine quality but ultimately undermined by a handful of costly errors, offered a telling snapshot of why that gap remains.

The bottom line

Loh Kean Yew played the big moments better. That much is fair to say. He absorbed Sen’s fast starts, weathered his fightbacks, and found the composure to finish the job when it mattered, eventually advancing to the pre-quarterfinals.

For Sen, there is little shame in the result itself against an opponent of that pedigree. But the pattern in this defeat, a strong recovery undone by another, is one he and his coaching team will recognise.

The talent to trouble Asia’s best is clearly there. The challenge, as this match showed once again, is holding onto an advantage once he has built it.

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