Last year was a good year for Badminton while PV Sindhu shone at Rio Olympics, young Indian Shuttler Lakshya Sen exhibited fine performances on the court. At the latest Badminton World Federation rankings released yesterday, the 15-year-old from Almora, Uttarakhand attained the World No. 1 spot among juniors.
The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy from Hyderabad has yet again proved why the academy is the best thing happened to Badminton in India. Lakshya dethroned Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee (16, 091 points), with just two points to take the lead in the latest list. Lakshya was able to reach his goal in eight tournaments he played, six fewer than his closest rival. Lakshya who is training at the academy for past six years ended 2016 with a jump from No. 8 to No. 3 position.
Lakshya's Career Highlights
The Almora kid won gold medal at the India International Series at Hyderabad beating Malaysian rival Zii Jia Lee, bronze medal in the U-17 Badminton Asia Championships at Kudus, bronze in U-19 edition at Thailand last year, Wimbledon junior, Danish junior and Swiss junior title as well. Trained under the surveillance of Padukone and U Vimal Kumar he is the rising and shining star of Indian badminton.
A fully fit Lakshya gives 100% in any of the tournament he plays and rises like a Champion. On the back of these performances, expectations follow him closely as none of the male Indian Shuttlers, so far, have made it to World No. 1 in men’s ranking. All it takes is to first win important tournaments, beat good players and then become No. 1. Lakshya has all the qualities and we can hope more good news when he will start playing for the men’s singles.