With 'no time to celebrate', Lakshya Sen gears up for his next breakthrough

A spirited Lakshya Sen on Monday described his Canada open triumph as one of the greatest comebacks in his nascent careerSen saved four game points in the second game of the final to outwit Chinas Li Shi Feng of China 2118 2220 snapping a 17month wait for a BWF world tour titleThe youngster saidthe win against the reigning All England Champion gives him confidence and belief in the Olympic qualification yearComing into the Olympic qualification year it was tough as things didnt go my way So this will be one of the good tournaments for me and playing the finals like that is for me one of the greatest comebacks Sen the reigning Commonwealth Games champion told PTIFollowing the high of 2022 Sen endured a low this season after being bothered by the effects of nose surgery that he underwent to treat a deviated septum following the World Championships last AugustHis recovery process extended from three months to over eight months and his struggles were reflected in his performance He made firstround exits from the last four events of 2022 and found the going tough in the early part of 2023 His ranking also plunged to world number 25 from sixI was training well but postsurgery I was falling sick and immunity was not well I had a lot of health issues I couldnt play 100 per cent I had prepared well for All England but again couldnt do well he saidAlso Read Lakshya Sen beats reigning All England champion Feng to win Canada Open WatchSen also had to make some changes around him after Korean coach Yong Sung Yoo left following the 2022 World Championships He got Anup Sridhar on board and also hired Deckline Leitao a sport and exercise science specialistSince my Korean coach left there have been a lot of changes I have tried different things in training and it is all helping me now The kind of support system that I have with Anup bhaiya my physio and I changed my trainer now I am working with Deckline Leitao So gelling with all and having Vimal Kumar sir and my dad DK Sen around it all helped I hope to continue the form in the Olympic qualification year it gives me a lot of confidence and belief he saidWhile HS Prannoy is the highestranked Indian at world number 8 Sen and Kidambi Srikanth are ranked at the 19th and 20th spots respectivelyA win like this will surely ease the pressure in the Olympic qualification race which began on May 1 but Sen knows it is still a long road ahead with the Olympic period concluding on April 28 2024I wont say it is a relief I still have to play a lot of tournaments but this win will give me big motivation that I am doing the right thing and belief in my process he saidThere are a lot of tournaments I will just take the positives from this one Now that my health issues are sorted I just want to remain injury free and fit for the good season aheadSen came into the final with a 42 headtohead count against Li Shi Feng having beaten him on his way to the semifinal finish of the Thailand OpenThat match was completely different there was a lot more pressure this time Today it was more about who controls the net because we both were hitting well and scoring from the back so had to be quick at the netSo how do you plan to celebrateTomorrow I will be travelling so Tuesday I will get a feel of the court and play on Wednesday US Open There is not much time to celebrate so probably have a good meal here and then rest and recoverWith PTI inputs