Lakshya Sen's story from tears to cheers!

Lakshya Sen during the All England Championships final against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen at Birmingham on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Behind the charming, boyish smile of India's young badminton sensation, Lakshya Sen, it's difficult to imagine that there have been a lot of tears. Not tears of sorrow, but tears of frustration that he endured as a kid when he would lose to players much older than him at the lone badminton court in Uttarakhand's Almora town.

‘Grateful to my coaches'

During a virtual media interaction a couple of days after his impressive runner-up finish at the prestigious All England Championships with his father and coach DK Sen by his side, Lakshya recalled some of those early days in the sport. "We had just one court and more often than not, we [kids] hardly got to play and would end up doing wall practice at the side. But I enjoyed it all and am grateful to my coaches at the PPBA [Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy] and for the support of OGQ [Olympic Gold Quest] throughout," said Lakshya, 20, who won the bronze medal at the World Championships last year and followed it up with gold at the India Open earlier this year.

DK Sen

Sen Sr revealed details of his son's early teary days. "Lakshya hated to lose even as a kid. He always played against boys much elder than him and wanted to do well. And if the opponent kept winning points, he would immediately start crying. My father would tell my wife and I that we should talk to him and make him understand. But soon we realised that those tears were not a sign of weakness, but his strength because they would inspire him to fight back and win. As a kid, he won many matches with tears in his eyes. He's always up for a challenge," said DK.

Lakshya faced one of his biggest challenges against reigning world and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark at the All England final on Sunday. He came a cropper, losing 10-21, 15-21, but blamed it on fate more than anything else. "Losing the toss was crucial. He [Axelsen] picked the better side and dominated right from the start. I did try to make a comeback in the second game, but things didn't go as per plan. Had I won the toss, things could have been different," said Lakshya.

At 5 ft, 8 Lakshya has faced the much taller Axelsen (6 ft, 3) five times and managed to beat him just once. So is height the differentiator here? "Not really," Lakshya replied quickly.

Height is not an issue

"Against a taller opponent you need to ensure you don't give it [shuttlecock] too much of a lift, otherwise there's not much of a difference. But I need to work on my defence and some of my overhead shots as well. I have around 10 days before my next tournament and I'll work on that," assured the youngster.

Sen enters Top-10; Jolly-Gayatri rise to 34

Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen's silver medal-winning feat at the All England Badminton Championships helped him break into the Top-10 of the latest BWF World Ranking on Tuesday.

Sen, 20, who became only the fifth Indian ever to reach the summit clash of All England Championships, improved two places to become World No.9 with 74,786 points, surpassing reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

Meanwhile, women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also jumped 12 places to reach a career-best World No.34, riding on their maiden semi-final finish at the All England Championship.