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Lakshya Sen, 16, went to Jakarta for the Badminton Asian Junior Championships with a considerable burden of expectations.
In sixth place among men under 19, he met these expectations. The No. 1 junior world champion and reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-19 21-18 in Sunday's final to win gold at this prestigious tournament, becoming only the third Indian to the make.
Sen, the Uttarakhand shuttler, played 10 games, winning each of them in the space of nine days. Of the three matches in the team event that preceded the individual event, that of Sen, Indonesia, was won in the semifinal by the Chinese Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay, 5th and 5th seeded . and world No. 3 Li Shifeng in the quarter-finals without dropping a game.
The only game in which he dropped a game throughout the Jakarta trip was in Round 32 against Riku Hatano of Japan. About Sen's skills in badminton but also his mental endurance
Sayali Gokhale, Sen's coach at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bangalore where he has been coaching for a few years, told DNA on Sunday that Sen's mental toughness on
"Mentally, he is very tough and strong," said the former 31-year-old female national champion, Gokhale
"He can do what he wants on the ground. do that, he is working 100 per cent on that. It's an advantage that he has and that comes naturally to him.
"He is very intelligent, he can very effectively use his forces in the game at crucial moments, he is able to change the game to his direction.If he plays at a certain pace, he knows how to speed up and get those points towards the end of the game and win, "she added.
The matches of the individual event were not easy, although the results may suggest it. "Some of the opponents that he played here, he played against them last year. He had beaten the Chinese in last year's games at the World Juniors (fourth round ) .This tournament has never been easy and he has faced the situation more than Gokhale, who often travels with Sen as a coach on tournaments, including his triumphant Bulgarian Open International Series in August last in Sofia, said that Sen's confidence has been very high through this tournament.
Most of this confidence came from having attracted the multiple world champion twice in a row. 39 incomparable Chinese Lin Dan, in May this year – at the New Zealand Open (21-15 15-21 12-21) and Thomas Cup (21-16 9-21 8-21).
The youngster won the first match in both games before going to both Olympic and five-time world champion.
Gokhale said "All this tournament, he played with enormous confidence to the right of the first round. He has won every match convincingly, which will make him a force to be considered in the senior circuit in the future. He kept his calm and composure at every game and it helped him to fight.
"He has a very good offensive game, he has the big advantage and uses it very cleverly.At all, his game seemed good throughout this tournament," he said. she adds.
Quite well, of course, to emulate Gautam Thakkar (1965) and PV Sindhu (2012) as the only Indian gold medalists at the Badminton Asia Juniors. ] Gokhale said that the idea of fighting against Lin Dan excited Sen.
"When he entered these tournaments, he knew that he was going to play Lin Dan and he was looking forward to .In New Zealand Open, when he did it again, he was shown that the first time was not a coincidence, these matches gave Lakshya a lot of confidence that he would succeed well with the best players, "she said. -founder and director of PPBA, which always spoke high of Sen, was praised with the result.
Speaking of Bengaluru, Kumar told this newspaper: "Lakshya had a difficult draw. He beat the world No. 1 in the final, the Chinese No. 1 in the quarter-finals, the No. 1 Indonesian semi-finals and the No. 1 Korean in the second round (after the first round). He beat them all convincingly.
"And, considering that he had problems with injury to the shoulder and ankle, it's a very good result for him." All the best countries have played in the tournament.
Speaking of the finale that he watched on YouTube, Kumar said: "I liked his way of playing at the crucial stages in both games." He released it, especially in the second where a Thai boy was coming back.He tactically took a little break "
Sen is about to become the next big thing of Indian badminton.But he is like any other teenager, says Gokhale
"He likes to spend time out of the court, watch movies, and when he's on the court, he focuses on his game. On the court he's pretty relaxed."
Next appointment for Sen : the $ 75,000 Open Super 100 Vietnam from August 7th to 12th. "There are a few senior tournaments lining up for him, the goals are high enough for him, with this Asian win, he should gain confidence in these tournaments and should be leading the rankings," said Gokhale. DID YOU KNOW?
Lakshya Sen is the third Indian badminton player to win gold at the Junior Asian Championships, after Gautam Thakkar (1965) and PV Sindhu (2012). Sindhu had also won a bronze medal in 2011, while Sameer Verma won a silver medal and a bronze medal in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The pair of Pranav Chopra and Prajkta Sawant won bronze in 2009
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