Young Lakshya Sen’s rise as the next star of Indian badminton was never in doubt, given his penchant for doing well on the big stage, right from his junior days. Still short of his 21st birthday, Lakshya comes from a sporting family and he has, with his runner-up finish in the All England Open, proved again that he is a show-stopper.
But then, losing to the winner of the World, Olympic, Thomas Cup and almost every title Viktor Axelsen is no shame. What was great was Lakshya’s arrival at the top level.
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The Almora-born youngster first grabbed attention in 2016 with a bronze in the Asian Youth Championship. The next year didn’t go too well, even though Lakshya was ranked No. 1 in the BWF world junior rankings.
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The real successes began coming in 2018, with the Asian Junior title, with Lakshya beating World No. 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the final.
Also came a bronze in the Junior World Championship, with Kunlavut winning that duel.
The All England of 2020 saw Lakshya meeting up Axelsen in the second round and that didn’t go well either. Axelsen duly went ahead to win the title.
A World Championship bronze in 2021, where he lost to Kidambi Srikanth, was followed by Lakshya’s first Super 500 title, the India Open in 2022, where he beat world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
The slew of successes, many as champion, came Lakshya’s way over the past few years but it was only on Sunday that he was really toasted as a champion.
Indian sport and sports lovers are a fickle lot. Attention can be grabbed like a landslide but then lost rapidly too. Lakshya is now in the focus, or was, till Sunday night, but losing a final, or at any stage, for that matter, can be a sure-fire formula for going out of public attention.
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While it is not always a bad thing for potential superstars to stay away from the hype, any sport in India, other than cricket, invariably needs performance in order to stay in the run for support.
Young Lakshya has what it takes to go right to the top, not just in Super 1000s like the All England, but also World Championships and Olympics. It is for him to focus on his talent and hone his skills. The accolades will come along with success, for sure.
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