Lakshya Sen, the young 20-year-old Badminton Prodigy of India, made history recently. Even though it was a disappointing evening, Lakshya still managed to make the country proud by reaching the final of one of the most esteemed Badminton Championships. He played against World’s number one and Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final at the Birmingham Arena in England. The young shuttler put on his best fight but was of no match against his 28-year-old Danish opponent and lost the All England Open Badminton Championship final and had to settle for a Silver medal. However, the two players showed good sportsmanship by exchanging Jersey after the match.
Who is Lakshya Sen?
Lakshya Sen was born on August 16th, 2001, and originally hails from the state of Uttrakhand. Although he comes from a long line of Badminton players, his family has a strong badminton background, including his brother Chirag Sen, who is also an International Badminton player. Chirag has won many International Badminton tournaments himself. Interestingly, their father, DK Sen, is one of India’s most respected Badminton coaches and worked at the Sports Authority of India.
Lakshya, since an early age, saw the attention of many, including the great of the game and one of the only two Indians to have won the All England Open Badminton Championship Prakash Padukone. Padukone predicted him saying, “He will conquer the World”. The youngster has been training at the Prakash Padukone academy in Bangalore since 10.
Achievements
Sen has many achievements under his belt, including winning the U-13, U-17, and U-19 competitions. Interestingly, what surprised many was when he won the U-19 Competition. He was only 15 years of age which brought him to the national spotlight.
- At the early age of 11, he won the Israel Junior International Badminton Tournament.
- In 2016, Lakshya registered his entry into the Badminton World by beating the number ranked 1 Junior champion in Thailand. He bagged a Bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championship.
- The right-handed magician decided to take part in the All India Senior Championship in 2016 and proved his mettle again by winning it at 17.
- 2017 brought even more joy to his career as he became the World No 1 Junior Singles Player. Also, he was a runner-up at the Tata Open India International Competition.
- 2018 being a remarkable year for the youngster, he won his first gold medal at the Asia Junior Championship after defeating his opponent from Thailand. He is only the third Indian after Gautam Thakkar and PV Sindhu.
- Also, in the summer of 2018, at the Youth Olympics in Bueno Aires, Argentina, the youngster became the first Indian badminton player to win at the Youth Olympics.
- Surprisingly at the start of the year in 2022, Lakshya became the first Indian to win the Indian Open men’s singles title by beating the World Champion Loh Kean Yew, who hails from Singapore.
Since 2016, Lakshya has won seven major titles and has been the runners up at least four times, including the All England Open Badminton Championship final.
