Lakshya Sen needs to firmly believe he can win big tournaments, says coach Vimal Kumar

Lakshya Sen is the brightest hope for Indian badminton in the build up to Paris 2024. He broke into the top 20 rankings for the first time in November and has carried his inspired form to the ongoing World Championships in Huelva, Spain.

A glimpse of his maturity was on display at the marquee event as he thrived on long-rallies to upstage higher-ranked and experienced Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 22-20, 15-21, 21-18 in a three-game thriller to enter the third round. He then went on to register a straighforward 21-13, 21-8 win against veteran Kevin Cordon to reach the last eight.

Now he is assured of a medal after booking a semifinal spot with victory over China's Zhao Jun Peng.

The 20-year-old had also made an impressive debut at the World Tour Finals earlier this month, making it to the semi-finals before going down to Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Viktor Axelsen.

However, his coach and Olympian Vimal Kumar, believes that reaching the top four stage of mega tournaments will not be enough and he should target to win the Super Series titles to establish himself in the top tier of men’s badminton.

“He should try winning some of the Superseries events,” Kumar told Olympics.com

“Not just to be content with reaching the quarter-final or semi-finals. He should firmly believe that he can win tournaments. That sort of mindset he should develop

"There are opportunities and he will get to play more tournaments. He needs to take care of his body, not getting too many injuries. He cannot take it easy because it will get tougher at the top," he added.

Sen was nearly 10 when he first told Kumar that he wants to take up badminton and the former national champion obliged to give him a chance after a trial. He has, since then, groomed him at the Prakash Padukone academy and has been the closest one to witness growth of the shy boy from Almora.

"He is a very small town boy, still very shy,” Kumar, who represented India at Barcelona 1992, said.

“Now he's more in the limelight and there are expectations. We keep telling him not to get bogged down. Because there are a lot of players above him and he should try to play freely and beat them. And then once he becomes a top 5 player, he can get bogged down.

"We cannot just say that you have become a top player. He should get physically and mentally stronger in the process. So getting here was alright, but going ahead and establishing himself will be tougher. He needs to understand.”

The Prakash Padukone Academy, where Sen trains, strengthened their coaching team this month as they brought in two-time men’s doubles silver medalist Yoo Yong-sung till Paris 2024.

The South Korean, incidentally, was the first-ever foreign coach of the Chinese national team after being appointed at the position in 2019.

"The coach of that stature coming in will boost the morale of all youngsters,” added Kumar.

“But I don't think there will be anything major (in terms of changes). He will have a lot of ideas and Lakshya Sen can try that out. It's not that every idea needs to be blindly followed, we will sit together and work it out.”

And it will now be up to Sen to continue learning from the best and establish himself.