All eyes on Lakshya Sen at All England Championships

Lakshya Sen

As the Indian badminton caravan moves to Birmingham for the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships (March 16 to 20), all eyes will be on the in-form Lakshya Sen, who finished runner-up at the German Open recently. Sen also pocketed the India Open title, following up on his World Championships bronze medal in December last year.

The highlight of Sen's German Open show was his semi-final victory over World No. 1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen. Sen, 20, had faced Axelsen four times previously, without winning a single game against the big Dane. This time, however, Sen broke down the 6-foot-four Axelsen brilliantly. The Indian came up with a brilliant defence to frustrate Axelsen and happily dived all over the court to get the shuttle over the net.

Most importantly, he did not rush to finish the rallies, bided his time and waited to hit a weak shuttle. Former chief national coach Vimal Kumar, who has been training Sen at the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore since he was just nine, said it was one of Sen's best matches.

"I worked on his defence a lot. And finally, those long hours of hard work have paid off. He was brilliant in defence and very controlled in his attack. And very cool and calm on the court. We worked on his fitness too, and the results are there for all to see," Kumar told mid-day.

Sen beat Axelsen 21-13, 12-21, 22-20 but went on to lose the final to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in straight games 18-21, 15-21. The worry, however, is whether Sen will recover in time from the blisters on his left foot for his first All England match on Wednesday. "Lakshya should be able to recover in time as he had two days rest. And we have a really good physiotherapist looking after him. He had blisters and a slight cut in the left leg which was heavily taped," said coach Kumar.

Sen plays compatriot

Sourabh Verma first up and then faces the winner of the match between world champion Loh Kean Yew and third seed Anders Antonsen.

Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) are the only two Indian winners of the All England event, now in its 114th year. While Saina Nehwal came close, losing in the final of the 2015 edition, India's double Olympic medal-winning shuttler PV Sindhu, who has won medals at most big-ticket events like World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, has somehow not succeeded here. Sindhu, seeded sixth, has not been in the best of form for some time, but if she has to get back on track, the All England could be the perfect platform to do so. China's Wong Zhi Hi will be a tricky first-round opponent for Sindhu here.

Meanwhile, in the men's doubles, India's champion pair of Chirag Shetty and Saisatwik Rankareddy are also looking good to create history. The reigning India Open champions are more than capable of becoming the first Indian pair to achieve glory here.

Indians at 2022 All England

>> Men's singles: Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma, Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Sourabh Verma
>> Women's singles: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal
>> Men's doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun
>> Women's doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy, Srivedya Gurazada and Ishika Jaiswal
>> Mixed doubles: Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto

With inputs from PTI