Storming the court: A Wknd Q&A with badminton champ Lakshya Sen

So it’s easy to miss the steely resolve beneath the calm. But he’s known what he wanted since he was 10. And what he wanted, more than anything, was to be, well, where he is now.

Born into a family of badminton players — his father and grandfather played at various levels, and his elder brother is also a pro — Sen picked up the racket early. By age 10, he was playing at the interstate level and that’s where he first caught the eye of the coaches at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru.

Sen’s brother, Chirag Sen, then 13, was already enrolled there. The coaches talked to their father, player-turned-coach Dhiren Sen, about whether he’d like to enrol his younger son too. But they all agreed that Sen was too young to live away from his family and his home in Almora, Uttarakhand.

The one person who couldn’t be deterred was Sen. He wanted to train here, he told his father. “There were many senior players in the academy, and I saw them training and playing together,” Sen told Wknd. He was really young, he added, but he knew this would be the best thing for him.

His father wasn’t surprised. The hunger had been unmistakable for a while, Dhiren Sen told Wknd. “Lakshya always talked about winning internationally. Even before he started playing seriously, he read somewhere that Rudy Hartono held a record for most All England Open titles. He said ‘I will win one more than he did,’” he added, chuckling.

***

Sen couldn’t have picked a better time to enrol at PPBA. Former World No. 1 Padukone and former national coach U Vimal Kumar, co-founder and director-cum-chief coach respectively, were in the process of shifting the academy’s focus to developing junior talent. Sen remains a key part of that shift.

At his first international youth tournament in Singapore, in 2011, he won gold. Before he hit his teens, he had been identified as the big new hope in Indian badminton and was receiving support from Olympic Gold Quest, a non-profit that aims to train and groom world-class athletes to up India’s medal tally at the Games.

From the day he insisted on enrolling, he has displayed unwavering commitment, Kumar told Wknd. “He has innate talent too. He could grasp things quicker and better than most boys his age.”

By 15, Lakshya was performing at the U-19 and higher levels. “That’s why he could do well at the big stage in recent times. The likes of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu also showed that spark from a young age,” Kumar said.

Sen was aware of the buzz around him. “I didn’t think about it,” he said. “Everyone has their goals, aims, dreams. I was a kid who wanted to play all the world’s big tournaments. I knew it was possible. I had that belief from the beginning.”

***

By the time he was 17, Sen had won silver at the Youth Olympic Games and gold at the Asia Junior Championships. The youth test aced, it was time for the step up.

Even for the best junior players, this transition can be jarring. For Sen, it was almost seamless. He puts it down to playing so many Badminton World Federation (BWF) tournaments (18 in 2019 alone, winning five).

He also trained with the world-renowned Danish player-turned-coach Morten Frost, and zoomed from 109 in the world rankings to 32 between the beginning and end of 2019. (He is currently ranked 17th).

“Playing that many tournaments gave me a lot of confidence, and facing different types of opponents helped me grow,” Sen said. “Playing against some of the top players in the world still felt different. But now I’m getting used to that too.”

How has he dealt with the pressure of winning, and being expected to win? Sen said he realises that each stride forward brings heightened expectations. But he believes he has the right mechanisms to deal with them, from the yoga taught to him by his mother Nirmala Sen to his breaks in Almora, where he unwinds over video games and movies with his friends. “I have mental trainers and coaches to help me deal with these things too.”

His game is still evolving; Sen has worked on his rallying and defensive play to complement his viciously effective attacking skills. And he understands, he said, that breaking into the big leagues and staying there are two very different things.

But this is what it was all for, he added. “I am doing what I love, travelling the world to play badminton. After winning this bronze, I believe I can win the world championships too. My dream has always been to be World No. 1.”