What has gone wrong with Lakshya Sen's form post Olympics?

Lakshya Sen suffered back-to-back early exits since returning to action post Olympics.

India’s Lakshya Sen has failed to win a match since his return to action post the break after Paris Olympics 2024. Sen crashed out from the opening round of Denmark Open last week after going down in straight games against China’s Lu Guang Zu. A week earlier, he exited in the round 16 of the Arctic Open after receiving a bye in the opening round.

This was quite unexpected after Sen nearly returned from his debut Olympics campaign with a historic medal—One that would have been a first-ever by an Indian male shuttler.

At the Paris Olympics, the 23-year-old came agonizingly close to winning an Olympic medal but fell short at the final hurdle against Lee Zii Jia, losing 21-13, 16-21, 11-21, to settle for a heartbreaking fourth-place finish. This was after he had gone down to eventual champion Viktor Axelsen in the semis.

Post his Olympics heartbreak, Sen took a two-month break from badminton before returning to action at the Arctic Open. A walkover from Rasmus Gemke in the Round of 32 took him to the second round where Sen faced Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Lakshya, who beat Chou in the quarterfinals at Paris, led the opening game 13-7 but lost his focus and trailed 17-19 at one point. However, he managed to close out the game with four consecutive points. In the second game he led once again and was cruising towards a win, but errors crept into his game resulting in an 18-21 loss. He eventually lost the decider 15-21 to crash out.

It was similar story a week later when he faced Lu Guang Zu at the Denmark Open. Sen lost the round of 32 clash in three games, despite winning the opening game and leading in the second. He was 16-11 up and five points away from clinching the tie, but couldn’t cross the finish line.

So, what exactly has gone wrong for Lakshya Sen? Is it a fitness issue, mental pressure or something else?

Fitness shouldn’t be an issue at all as Lakshya was fresh on the court after a two-month break. Moreover, the matches he played were his firsts in each of those tournaments. A glimpse into how fit he was could be the long rallies he engaged in both those matches.

Against Chou Tien Chen in the second round of Arctic Open, Lakshya fought back from 4-14 down in the deciding game. He eventually lost 15-21 but had won 11 of the last 18 points to keep his chances alive.

Prior to the Paris Olympics, he had worked hard on his fitness after recovering from flu and reached back-to-back semifinals at the All England and French Open before going deep into the medal round at the Olympics. Here we try and find reasons for his sudden slump in form following the high at Paris.

Why has Lakshya Sen’s form dipped post Paris?

Lack of focus

Those who have followed Lakshya’s game for a fair amount of time will always point to him switching off and errors creeping into his game that results in him conceding what can be termed as easy points. Often it has allowed the half-dead opponent find his rhythm back and eke the game from grasp of defeat. Far too often in recent times—like at the Arctic and Denmark Open—Sen has lost matches from winnable positions.

As at the Arctic Open against Chou, Lakshya nearly lost his quarterfinal clash against the same opponent in Paris Olympics. Leading by 17-15 in the opening game, Sen—playing his maiden Olympic Games—lost it 19-21 to trail 0-1. He did win the next two games to advance and be in the reckoning for a medal.

Back in June at the Singapore Open, Lakshya was 10-8 up in the match decider against now two-time Olympic champion and former world number one, Viktor Axelsen. However, in a wicked turn of events, he lost eight consecutive points to crash out in the opening round.

Similarly at the Asian Championships in April, Lakshya was 12-7 up against China’s Shi Yu Qi in the opening game, but then won just two out of the next 11 points to suffer a defeat.

This pattern of him losing focus and ceding momentum to the opposition has become a familiar sight in matches. The 23-year-old World Championships medallist must hit the training board to produce error-free matches consistently.

Also Read: Which Indian players can qualify for BWF World Tour Finals 2024?

Pressure of being India’s next biggest badminton star

A former Youth Olympics and Junior Worlds medallist, Lakshya Sen, has for long been touted as India’s next shuttler with the big promise. And justifiably so, he has shown enough glimpses of it through his still young career with most of it coming in 2022.

The boy from Uttarakhand’s Almora beat then World No. #1 Viktor Axelsen at the German Open, then reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew to win the Indian Open, #WR2 Anders Antonsen & #WR3 Lee Zii Jia at the All England and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the Thomas Cup.

In what was his most productive year on tour, Sen won the CWG gold, silver at the Asiad, was part of the historic Thomas Cup winning team and won Indian Open tournament at home—his only BWF Tour title for over a year.

Expectations brings pressure and pressure often leads to disappointment or in Sen’s case decreased confidence.

Is coaching an issue?

Of late, India’s biggest badminton stars seem to be struggling with consistency and coaches who can push and bring forth consistent performances out of them.

Take PV Sindhu for instance. A two-time Olympic medallist and one of India’s most decorated badminton athlete, Sindhu has had four different coaches since parting ways with Park Tae-Sang in 2023. But has failed to find consistency.

Similarly, Lakshya trained under Anup Sridhar in 2023 before Vimal Kumar returned as his coach at the start of 2024. Vimal and Prakash Padukone accompanied the 23-year-old to the Paris Olympics while Lakshya also had a short stint with Korea coach Yoo Yong-Sung prior to the Olympics. It was under Yoo Yong-Sung in 2021-22 that Sen had his best performance on tour.

Post Paris Olympics, his father DK Sen has travelled with him to tournaments.

Sen could perhaps do reuniting with Yoo Yong-Sung, under whom he had his best spell, or a disciplinarian like Prakash Padukone. Perhaps, he would need someone who can help remove the mental block and urge him to keep pushing and not take pressure off the padel just as things get tricky.

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