Teen shuttler Lakshya eyes top 30 ranking by year end

GUWAHATI: Making a transition into the senior circuit this year, India’s teen badminton sensation Lakshya Sen says he needs to work on his speed and stamina as he eyes to break into the top 30 BWF ranking by the year end.

“My target is to break into top 30 by this year,” the 17-yearold shuttler from Uttarakhand said. It is an Olympic qualification year, so entry into tournaments will be difficult. Depending on my performance and ranking I will pick events.

For the time being I will play the Super 100 and Super 300 events mainly.

“Olympic qualification is extremely tough. Last year, my ranking was 69-70 early in the year but I missed out on many senior tournaments since I played a few junior events. So my ranking went down,” he added.

Lakshya, who had reached the finals at the 2017 edition and semifinal at last edition of the Nationals, is eager to get the senior national title under his belt.

“Senior national championship is a big event for me. I have played 3-4 times before, in fact, last two years I have been playing both junior and senior and so it is one of my target this year,” he said. Lakshya had a fabulous 2018 where he won the Asian Junior Championship and a silver and bronze at the Youth Olympics and World Junior Championship respectively before capping the season with a title at the TATA Open.