India, March 8 -- Lakshya Sen dug deep into his reserves on Saturday to win an All England semi-final for the ages against Canada's Victor Lai, becoming only the second Indian to reach the title clash at the prestigious Super 1000 tournament.

Lakshya emulated early mentor Prakash Padukone, who won the world's oldest badminton tournament in 1980 and finished runner-up the next year. Lakshya reached the summit clash first in 2022 when he lost to Danish great Viktor Axelsen.

On Saturday, he continued his great run in the tournament in Birmingham when he beat Lai 21-16, 18-21, 21-15 in a draining encounter lasting 97 minutes.

As the Indian badminton community rejoiced at his run, the happiest was his coach U Vimal Kumar, who has coached th...