There are defeats that sting because they should never have happened, and there are defeats that sting because they expose something you did not want to confront. Lakshya Sen’s loss to Garret Tan on Wednesday fell somewhere between the two.
Sen, the 14th seed and one of India’s most bankable hopes on home soil, was eliminated from the BWF World Championships by an 18 year old American ranked 92nd in the world. The scoreline, 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 in Tan’s favour, only hints at the drama of a 73 minute contest that swung violently between the two men before the teenager held his nerve when it mattered most.
It was, by some distance, the biggest win of Tan’s young career. It was also, and this is the harder part for Indian badminton to absorb, a reminder that rankings mean little when the nerves take hold.
A match of shifting fortunes
Sen began the way a 14th seed should, and for a while the script held. The opening game was tight, Tan leading narrowly at the interval, but Sen found the composure to edge it 21-19. The home crowd, packed into the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, exhaled. The favourite was on his way.
Then the match turned. Tan, who had lost that first game without ever being outclassed, came out for the second with a fearlessness that seemed to rattle his more experienced opponent. He built a 9-4 lead and, though Sen saved four game points late on, the American closed it out with a smash winner to force a decider.
The third game was where it fell apart for Sen. Tan raced to a 7-2 lead, then 11-4 at the interval, and the home favourite found himself chasing a match he had once controlled. Sen mounted a fightback after the change of ends, dragging the score back to 17-15 and briefly threatening to complete the escape, but Tan, despite receiving medical treatment for a head injury, refused to buckle. He earned four match points, Sen saved one, and then it was over.
The honest reckoning
To his credit, Sen did not reach for excuses. “I think he was just a better player on court today. So yeah, I would give a lot of credit to him,” he said after the match.
He was equally candid about his own performance. “There is no injury as such. I think the performance, I would say, was not up to the mark,” Sen admitted.
There was frustration in his voice, and an acknowledgment of what the defeat meant. “It’s a big tournament and I mean it’s gonna probably hurt a little bit more, but again we have a lot of big tournaments coming up so just focused on that and will prepare for that,” he said.
It was the right response, but it does not change the cold reality. Sen came to New Delhi as a genuine medal hope, a former bronze medallist from 2021, a player who had just survived a first round scare and seemed to be building momentum. He leaves in the second round, beaten by a teenager nobody had heard of a week ago.
Who is Garret Tan?
The story of the upset is, in its own way, the story of the tournament’s most unexpected star.
Garret Tan is 18, ranked 92nd in the world, and before Wednesday he had never come close to a win like this. He played with the fearlessness of youth, attacking without hesitation, refusing to be cowed by the crowd or the occasion. When Sen threatened to complete his comeback in the third game, Tan’s composure never wavered.
“I’m still speechless right now. I just can’t believe I’m playing tomorrow,” Tan said after the match, the disbelief genuine.
He even played through a head injury, taking a knock during the contest and requiring medical attention, only to return and finish the job. “I hit my head a little bit, and I’ll get it checked by the doctor later on,” he said, as if the entire episode was merely an inconvenience.
Tan’s reward is a round of 16 clash against second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand, the former world champion. The teenager has already shown he is not intimidated by reputation, and whatever happens next, his name is now part of the tournament’s story.
The wider Indian picture
Sen’s defeat is a blow, but it should not obscure the broader Indian showing in New Delhi. Ayush Shetty’s stunning upset of world number one Shi Yu Qi remains the headline act of the championships, and PV Sindhu has advanced comfortably, as has the doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
The depth of Indian badminton is real, and the home crowd has had plenty to cheer beyond Sen’s disappointment. But the men’s singles draw, which had looked so open after Shetty’s heroics, has now lost one of its two Indian hopes in the space of two days. The pressure on the remaining contenders has, if anything, intensified.
For Sen, the road does not end here. He is 25, with a bronze medal already to his name and a career that still has room to grow. The defeat will hurt, as he acknowledged, but it is the kind of setback that can either define a player or be the making of them.
What comes next
Indian badminton’s attention now turns to the remaining contenders. Sindhu’s quest for a second world title continues, and the doubles pairings carry their own hopes. The home crowd, which turned out in force and will do so again, deserves a deep run from someone.
For Sen, the immediate future is simpler: regroup, recover, and prepare for the tournaments that follow. He spoke of the “lot of big tournaments coming up,” and there are. The defeat in New Delhi will not define his season, but it is a mark against it.
The teenager who beat him will play on, buoyed by the biggest win of his life. Lakshya Sen will go home, or stay and watch, and reckon with a result that neither he nor anyone else saw coming.
That is the cruelty of sport, and the beauty of it too. On any given day, the 92nd ranked player in the world can beat the 14th. On Wednesday, Garret Tan did exactly that.