Lakshya Sen on beating world badminton champ: This is just the beginning

Winner of the men’s singles at the India Open 2022, Lakshya Sen recently scripted history by defeating world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

Ask the 20-year-old about his feelings on securing his maiden Super 500 title, and he says he has a long way to go. “The advice that always keeps me going is ‘This is just the beginning’. And these are all stepping stones to what I have to achieve in the future. There are a lot more tournaments to win,” says the young sportsperson who sounds unstoppable!

Terming his smashing victory as “the biggest world tournament that (he has) won” so far, he says, “I felt really good after winning my first Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 500 title. Winning sure feels good. And for the match, I’d say that towards the closing stages I was a bit nervous and anxious to finish off the game. I managed to pull out points in the end.”

It’s, however, not just the match but also playing in the tournament amid the high risk of Covid-19 that kept Sen on the edge. When seven badminton players including Srikanth Kidambi and Ashwini Ponnappa tested positive during the tournament, Sen says.

“Thodi anxiety ho gayi thi mujhe about catching Covid myself and others catching it too. But I got the support from my coaches and mentors to focus on the game. And when I went on the court, I didn’t think about anything other than the game.”

Born in Almora, Uttarakhand, Sen had achieved many milestones by the time he turned 18. This includes surpassing his mentor, Prakash Padukone’s record to become the youngest Indian to reach the national men’s singles final, at the age of 15. But, it was the pandemic that gave a real jolt to his preparation for the path ahead.

“Without tournaments, it was really tough for us to keep practising and to keep learning something new. But yes, I managed to build my physical strength in these times.

Also, sometimes I was not even motivated enough to go out there and train. I really wish the tournaments restart in the full capacity now and things go back to normal,” says the shuttler who has enrolled BA (Honours) via distance learning from a Meerut university.

Inspired by former Indian badminton payer Prakash Padukone and former Indonesian badminton player Taufik Hidayat, Sen started training at the age of nine and feels:

“The journey has been good so far. Since I started playing the senior tournaments, the results have been coming, and there’s a lot more hard work that goes in now. You have to be focussed and fit all the time to play matches continuously. It’s a really long season, and there are a lot of matches that come at you fast.”

Belonging to a family of badminton players, including his brother Chirag, who is an ace badminton player, Sen says, “I had been seeing my elder brother play since I was young. He was a big part of my training, and I could anytime go to him to clear my doubts and improve my game.

But I could go from playing in the small town of Almora to a training academy because of my father. He was my first coach and has seen badminton inside out. For instance, whenever I would get injured, he had the right know-how to deal with it. That helped me early on in my journey.”