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.