Lakshya Sen
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A brief biography
2010-22
March 21, 2022: The Times of India
Lead Illustration: Sajeev Kumarapuram
When he was just 15, Lakshya became the youngest player to enter the national men’s singles final – a title Padukone had held till then. The boy from Almora in Uttarakhand, whose father is a respected badminton coach, clearly has shuttling in his genes.
When he was just about 9 years old, Lakshya wanted to tag along with his elder brother Chirag, who was going to play in the All-India Sub-Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament, held every year in Bangalore. Their father agreed to take both boys. Chirag went on to win the under-13 boys’ finals and his father asked Vimal Kumar, chief coach and director of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, to allow him to join the academy.
When the elder people were discussing this, Lakshya, according to various reports, piped up that he wanted to play too. An amused Kumar agreed to give him a trial and was so impressed, he took on both the Sen boys. Lakshya was passionately keen on winning, reports quote Kumar as saying. He would apparently cry in a corner if he lost a match – and he lost his share of them in the early days.
With expert coaching, the weeping boy began to get more assured and mature, examining the reasons for his loss and working on his weak points. Kumar says that Lakshya’s style is reminiscent of Padukone’s. Clearly, the academy saw a rising star. In 2017, Lakshya became the World No. 1 junior badminton player, and as cliched as it sounds, there was no looking back.
The rise and rise of Lakshya Sen
Wins and awards came thick and fast. Lakshya had won two Super 100 titles — Dutch Open and SaarLorLux Open — besides three international challenge titles at Belgium, Scotland, and Bangladesh — in 2019. Then came Covid, and badminton wasn’t centrestage for a while.
In 2021, Lakshya attended the selection trials for the national badminton team. At the trial in Hyderabad, Lakshya — and badminton fans — were shocked when he lost his very first match at the round-robin group stage to an unknown player. According to various reports at the time, Kumar blamed Gopichand, saying he was biased in favour of players from the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy.
Gopichand, per reports, said Lakshya had to abide by the rules. “I agree that Lakshya Sen is currently the country's best player, and richly deserved to be in the Indian squad for the two team competitions. But after his unexpected loss in the round-robin, he could not be accommodated in the quarterfinals, as per the rules.” Lakshya came back strongly from that disappointment, and proved naysayers wrong by winning everything that came is way through 2022. And then came the disappointment of losing the All-England finals.
The pillars of his strength/ 2022
Jaspreet Sahni, March 23, 2022: The Times of India
The rise and rise of Lakshya Sen Lakshya Sen has been in sensational form in the last six months. He secured his maiden world championship bronze in December, before winning his first Super 500 title at the India Open in January and finishing runner-up at the German Open last week.
Among his coaching staff, Lakshya also has two-time Olympic silver medallist Yoo Yong Sung, who was recruited by Lakshya's sponsors OGQ.
Sung has made a world of difference to Lakshya's game within three months of his appointment (hired in December 2021).
"It took us one year of searching and interviewing coaches across the world before we narrowed down on Yoo Yong Sung," said OGQ boss Rasquinha. "OGQ is paying his entire salary...It's already worth it. He has brought immense value to the table in terms of tactical nuances and quality and intensity of training. "Prakash sir and Vimal sir have been absolutely key to all of this," Rasquinha told TimesofIndia.com.
YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
Lakshya was born in August 2001
2017
February, World No 1 in junior Badminton
Shivam Damohe, World No 1 Junior badminton player: Lakshya Sen, Feb, 07 2017 : Firstpost
Shrivathsa Sridhar, Lakshya is junior world No. 1, Feb 3, 2017: The Times of India
According to the rankings of the Badminton World Federation in February 2017, Lakshya Sen from India is World No 1 Junior Badminton Player.
Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen, whose fine performances in 2016 saw him vault up the charts, attained the world No. 1 spot among juniors after the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings were announced.
The 15-year-old lad from Almora, Uttarakhand, who has been training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy here for the past six years, ended 2016 at No. 8 before jumping to No. 3 the following week.He finally displaced Chinese Taipei's Chia Hao Lee (16,091 points), with just two points separating the two in the latest list. What makes the junior national champion's feat all the more credible is the fact that he has gathered his points from eight tournaments, six fewer than his closest rival.
Lakshya, who trains under Padukone and U Vimal Kumar, won the bronze medal in the U-17 Badminton Asia Championships at Kudus, Indonesia in 2015 before collecting another bronze in the U-19 edition in Thailand last year. He also emerged triumphant in the all India senior ranking tournament in Itanagar.Another highlight was his gold medal in the India International Series event at Hyderabad, trumping Malaysian ace Zii Jia Lee in the final.
Aprodigious talent, Lakshya has also won the Wimbledon junior, Danish junior and Swiss junior titles in the past.
“He is quite sharp and picks up tactical points quickly . His basics are strong, he is fit and a sincere, dedicated shuttler. As of now, he has all the qualities of a champion and we expect him to do well going for ward,“ Padukone told TOI. “We're happy that he's achieved the top ranking, but I'm from the old school of thought where players must win important tournaments, beat good players and then become No. 1.“ Padukone urged the youngster to follow the example of Spaniard Carolina Marin.
The former All England champion said it was important for Lakshya to imbibe good values and not focus too much on rankings alone. “Whenever he plays a tournament he has to give 100% and has to be fully fit,“ Padukone said.
"Lakshya is a naturally gifted player and is quick to grasp the finer points of the game. I felt he had some very special qualities from the very beginning. The idea now is to help him keep developing tactically, which I feel is very important in the modern game where everyone tends to play a similar style as opposed to the '80s and '90s. I see my job as the one posing the questions, making him come up with the answers and I find he is faster at that than other players," Padukone was quoted saying by ESPN.
August: Bulgaria Open, First Major Senior Title Abroad
Yeshika Budhwar, Lakshya on target in Bulgaria, Aug 18 2017: The Times of India It's The First Major Senior Title Abroad For 16-Year-Old Shuttler
Uttarakhand shuttler Lakshya Sen, currently the world's top-ranked junior player, won the Bulgaria Open International Series in Sofia on Thursday , making it his first major win in the international circuit in the senior category outside India.
The teenager from Almora beat Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 in the men's singles final in Sofia, Bulgaria in a match that went on for 57 minutes. He had beaten Sri Lanka's Dinuka Karunaratna 21-19, 21-14 in the semifinal.
Sen, who turned 16 just a day earlier on Wednesday , has only recently started playing in the senior category .
He had won the Hyderabad Senior International Series held last year.
Sen had announced his mettle in the tournament in the first round itself when he upset Sam Parsons, the top seed from England.“It is a big achievement for a player to win an international championship on foreign soil. We are all very proud of Lakshya. He has been playing consistently well and I am sure that very soon, he will be in the top 50 in the men's singles category,“ said Ashok Kumar, president, Uttarakhand Badminton Association.
Sen is currently ranked No. 3 in India in men's singles and 167th in the world. D K Sen, Lakshya's father, who is also the state badminton coach, told TOI, “It is a proud moment not just for me but for the whole country. I spoke to Lakshya after the final and he was also excited about the win. It was a tough fight. We are expecting him to be back in the country on Saturday .“
Elaborating on the training that Lakshya underwent before the tourney , his father said, “For almost two weeks, Lakshya trained with (former All-England champion) Peter Gade who is currently head coach of the French badminton team. The training took place in France and it helped him a lot.“
The lanky teenager, who is a product of Prakash Padukone's badminton academy -many have compared his playing style to how Padukone played in his initial years -has also started preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to his father. “His next tourney will be the Vietnam Grand Prix later this year where he will play the men's singles as part of the Indian team. After that, it will be the Junior World Championship,“ he said.
2019
SaarLorLux Open: third straight title
Lakshya Sen secures third straight title
Saarbrucken (Germany): India’s Lakshya Sen bagged his second successive BWF World Tour Super 100 title with a thrilling win over China’s Weng Hong Yang in an exciting final at the SaarLorLux Open. Lakshya, seeded eighth, needed 59 minutes to overcome Weng 17-21, 21-18, 21-16 in the summit clash for his third successive singles title. He had clinched the Belgian International challenge and Dutch Open in his last two outings.
Dec: BWF’s no.32
Lakshya jumps nine spots to career-best 32nd in badminton rankings:
Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen has climbed up nine places to a career-best 32nd spot among men’s singles players in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings issued on Tuesday. Lakshya achieved the feat by winning the title at the Bangladesh International Challenge on Sunday, his fifth of the year in last seven tournaments. The 18-year-old Indian defeated Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao 22-20, 21-18 in the summit clash to clinch the title in Dhaka. Lakshya had won his first title of the year at the Belgian International in September and followed it up with wins at Dutch Open Super 100 and SarrLorLux Super 100 in October before claiming the Scottish Open crown in November.
2022
GIANT KILLER
In 2022, Jan- March Sen beat
Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen,
World champ Loh Kean Yew,
Oly bronze medallist A Ginting &
World bronze winner Anders Antonsen
World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia
Lost in the finals to:
German Open: Kunlavut Vitidsarn
