Lakshya wins 4th title in 3 months, ready for big league
RAPID RISE Coach Vimal Kumar feels the teenager has outside chance to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
NEW DELHI: Lakshya Sen will not even get a day to rest his weary body when he returns to India after three months, with four titles.
Twelve hours after he lands in Bengaluru from Glasgow, where he won the Scottish Open on Sunday, Sen will make a dash to Lucknow for the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships.
Sen won’t mind the frenetic pace one bit. He has been on fast forward, and in a hurry to embrace the international stage earlier than expected. It has been a frenzied few months for the 18-year-old who has emerged the most exciting Indian male shuttler.
In September, he went to Aarhus, Denmark’s national training centre, with three others (Kiran George, Rahul Bharadwaj and Mithun Manjunath) from the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, funded by Olympic Gold Quest.
Sen played club competition and international tournaments in Europe. Guided by Danish badminton legend Morten Frost, who travelled with him to two tournaments, Sen won international challenge titles in Belgium and Scotland, and two BWF Tour Super 100 tournaments—Dutch Open and Saarlorlux Open.
Such has been his steep climb in world rankings—from world No 67 to 41 in three months— that he could well spring a surprise and qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His coach and former international Vimal Kumar has his fingers crossed.
“If he really plays well I think he has an outside chance to make it to the Olympics. He has nothing to lose, nobody is expecting him to do anything so he can just play freely,” Kumar told Hindustan Times.
Sen will have to be in the top 16 in world rankings in men’s singles. The final list of qualifiers will be based on the world rankings published on April 20. Currently B Sai Praneeth (world No 10) and Kidambi Srikanth (world No 11) fall under the cut-off (top 16) for direct qualification.
SYED MODI MEET
It has been a roller-coaster year for the male shutters and save Sai Praneeth, who reached the semi-finals of the world championships, none has been consistent enough.
Srikanth has struggled with form and injuries and has pulled out of the Syed Modi tournament.
The Lucknow tournament was not in Sen’s plans but since his visa expired, he could not have stayed back in Denmark. So he decided to come back for the home event, where he faces Thomas Rouxel of France in the first round.
Sen defeated Brazilian Ygor Coleho in the final of the Scottish Open, coming from 10-13 down in the third game. In the semi-finals against France’s Christo Popov, Sen was down 19-15 but then closed it out 22-20 in the decider.
Kumar is impressed with the youngster fighting it out in tough situations.
“Last week in Ireland he had lost to the French guy, and in the Scottish Open he fought back in the semi-final. Coelho is a good player. He defeated HS Prannoy at the world championships. Laskhya looked tight in the final and he was trailing.
“But somehow he managed. He has been in Denmark for some time now and it is tough. They had to do everything on their own, including cooking. He must be feeling homesick. He has shown composure at the closing stages.
“In the Dutch Open all matches were tough. Last year, he was losing quite a few matches while leading; now he is coming from behind to close out matches. These matches put you under a lot of pressure. The challenger event is not easy because so many players are playing, because of Olympic qualification year. All this will give him the confidence to play in the big league now.”
TOP TOURNAMENTS NEXT YEAR
Sen is likely to gain in rankings this week. He will play another international challenge event in Bangladesh next month, and in January he will be competing at a higher level—Malaysia Masters,
Indonesia Masters (Super 500 events) and Thailand Masters (Super 300 event).
In February he is scheduled to play in the Spain Masters and then in the Austria Open, and possibly Asia Team Championships followed by the German Open in March.
Kumar expects him to be in the top 32 by then to make the cut for the All England Championships (Super 1000 event). The Swiss Open (Super 300) comes after that.
“He has done well against top-20 players. There are not many players who can win four tournaments in such a short span. It shows he has toughened up physically. He should be fine. There is a good possibility of his getting into the draw of All England.
“The goal was to get into the top 50 by the year end. He is already there. We don’t want to put him under any pressure. If he creates some upsets, he will be there (Tokyo),” he said.