Young Champ Gets into the Groove
When Lakshya Sen made the final of the YONEX All England 2022, there was the sense back home, in the badminton community, that it was somehow ordained – the only surprise was how quickly he was making it happen.
· DEV SUKUMAR
The association with the venerable tournament was hard to miss – Sen, the child prodigy mentored by Prakash Padukone, who was India’s first All England champion in 1980.
The All England has always carried great significance in India, but Padukone's 1980 win was a booster shot. Like Sen, Padukone too was a child prodigy, bearing the same quiet demeanour on and off court. Padukone was renowned for his net game with which he held off faster and harder-hitting opponents; Sen brought back the same flavour, which he demonstrated to great effect in his semifinal against the monster hits of Lee Zii Jia as he reined in the defending champion with his unerring touch up front.
Unlike many others who chanced upon badminton, or started out with other sports, Sen was born to badminton. He came from badminton stock; his grandfather was a recreational player, his father was a coach, and he remembers starting at the sport when he was five. As a wisp of a lad, he shifted from his hill-town home of Almora to go down south, some 2,300km away, to the Prakash Padukone Academy. Padukone would remark that Sen was more talented than he (Padukone) was at his age.