It’s the semifinal of the All England Open, the world’s oldest badminton tournament, all the more dear to Indians because Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand have triumphed there.
Twenty-year-old Lakshya Sen is playing against defending champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, 23.
The Utilita Arena in Birmingham is packed with noisy Indian and Malaysian fans. “HEY-YEAAHH, HEY-YEAAHH, HEY-YEAAHH,” the spectators chorus together between points, sending vibrations around the stadium. It feels a bit like Ali vs Foreman in the ‘Rumble in The Jungle’ in Zaire.
On the green mat of the court, where 300kmph smashes are flying around, Sen is losing. The two snipers have split the first two games. But in the decider, Sen trails - first 10-14, then 12-16.
When the crowd goes quiet occasionally, you hear the soundtrack of top-level badminton –feet scampering around the court, the shuttle being lashed or pinged, depending on the stroke.
Sen inches back into the game. Still down 15-17, he produces one of the points of the match. Zii Jia has him almost beaten with a smash, but Sen dives to his backhand, Boris Becker-style, and returns the shot. He then wins the point by wrong-footing Zii Jia with a forehand dribble.
At 18-18, the boy from Almora, Uttarakhand, dives once again - this time on his forehand side, to return a smash. A flustered Zii Jia nets his next shot.
Sen goes on to win 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 to become the first Indian since Saina Nehwal in 2015, and the first Indian man since P. Gopichand in 2001, to reach the All England final.
Yes, he lost the title round easily to the skyscraper-sized Viktor Axelsen, but Sen had made his mark.
Also read: Lakshya Sen gets praise, love after All England heartbreak
Swami Vivekananda, M.S. Dhoni, Uma Thurman. The list of eminent people with links to Almora is long. And now, the soft-spoken Sen, who often misses the hot momos of Uttarakhand when on a diet, has become one of the luminaries of the beautiful region in Kumaon.
Sen had been on the periphery of the consciousness of Indian sports lovers for a while now. But in the last six months, he exploded to the forefront of Indian badminton. Prior to the All-England, Sen won the India Open 2022, defeating world champion Loh Kean Yew. In 2021, he became the youngest Indian to qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals, an exclusive competition for the top eight players of the year. He also took the bronze at the prestigious BWF World Championships, matching the deeds of the great Padukone, his mentor.
OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest), the non-profit started by Padukone and Geet Sethi, and headed by Viren Rasquinha, has been a strong support for Sen for about a decade. Most recently, OGQ hired Yoo Yong Sung, an Olympic silver medallist, as his coach.
But it is Sen’s family that is his engine. They have been extremely dedicated to nurturing their sons. Badminton runs deep in the household. Sen’s older brother Chirag plays the game too, while his father Dhirendra Kumar is a coach. Mother Nirmala is a yoga expert. Sen’s grandfather played badminton as well, and it was while accompanying him that Sen picked up the sport.
“I saw my grandfather play, and I would play with him sometimes. Then, later on, when I was 6 or 7, I started proper training with my father, so that’s how I took up the sport,” Sen told Sports Today in an interview. “In the beginning it was just about playing the sport, enjoying the sport. I used to play a lot of other sports as well, like football, cricket. That really helped me get good overall fitness. Then I shifted to Bangalore in 2011 to train at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA).”
In fact, it was Chirag who was first sent to the PPBA. But the family requested the coaches to give Sen a trial.
“We were more keen on taking Chirag in, but his father insisted we have a look at him too,” Vimal Kumar, an Olympian and the PPBA director, told Forbes India. “Lakshya was very young, but what stood out back then was his ability to keep the shuttle in play without making too many mistakes.”
The Sen family is an example of how it takes 24/7 discipline and a lot of sacrifices to produce champions. During lockdown, the boys would wake up at 5 am for training. At times, Sen Sr would move the furniture at home around to create space so that the boys could practice low serves. In 2018, Nirmala Sen took voluntary retirement from her job as a teacher at Beersheba Senior Secondary School and moved to Bangalore to be with her sons.
Nirmala Sen speaks highly of her husband’s contribution in the careers of Lakshya and Chirag Sen.
"He has given his life to his children," she told Times of India. “Almora me sab kehte hai, iske papa ne hi isko banaya hai.”
Aamir Khan is Lakshya’s preferred Khan. And now he has earned the right to sing, ‘Papa kehte hai, bada naam karega.’
Also read: Lakshya Sen 'a prince who'll be crowned sooner or later'
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