BWF World Championships: Lakshya Sen emulates mentor Prakash Padukone’s feat | Badminton News – Times of India

BENGALURU: Young Lakshya Sen’s historic march into the men’s singles semifinals of the Badminton World Championships in Huelva, Spain, made it a special day for the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) here as the player from Almora (Uttarakhand) emulated his mentor Prakash Padukone’s achievement after nearly four decades.
The new star of Indian badminton, who has been training at the PPBA for the last 11 years, said Padukone’s path-breaking achievements were a guiding light.
“Prakash sir’s wins at the All England and Copenhagen Worlds (bronze, 1983) were a big inspiration for me as a youngster. We used to watch the videos of his matches and learnt from them. His wins were a big motivation to do well in big tournaments. He used to share his experiences and that was really helpful,” Lakshya told TOI from Huelva.

“I have borrowed a lot of technical points from Prakash sir’s game. Like dribbles, half smashes etc. Even now, after matches, when we analyze, his inputs are really helpful. The support provided by Prakash sir and Vimal (Kumar) sir had a lot of influence in my growth,” said Lakshya who picked Indonesian great Taufik Hidayat and Padukone as his favourite players.
A beaming Vimal said it was a creditable win for Lakshya who joined PPBA as a nine-year-old.
“It was an excellent match today against the Chinese. Lakshya was disappointed and hurt after he was dropped from the Thomas Cup squad. Then he got a chance to go to Dubai and train with World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen for two weeks. I immediately asked him to go and that helped him to get back in form. For the last three months, he has been playing tournaments in Europe,” Vimal said.
“The credit for his success also goes to his coaches DK Sen (Lakshya’s father), Umendra Rana and Sagar Chopda at the PPBA. The Olympic Gold Quest supported him as a nine-year-old.”

Lakshya said he was motivated to do well in the European circuit.
“I couldn’t do well in the (Thomas Cup) trials so that was a disappointment. It would have been great to make the team. But I was still motivated to do well on the European tour. The game sessions and sparring with Axelsen were very helpful. We also had one-on-one sessions and it helped in the games. He is very consistent and there are no easy points when you play him.”
Coach DK Sen said with the match on a knife’s edge at 20-20 in the third game, Lakshya slipped and twisted his right leg while playing a backhand shot and the shuttle’s slower than normal pace foxed the Chinese.

“In the first game, Lakshya pulled away with his intelligent game plan. Then he lost the second as a few errors crept in. After saving a match point in the third at 19-20, he twisted his right leg during the next rally but the pace of the shot dropped and that was a lucky break. He then converted
his first match point,” said Sen.
Looking ahead to the all-Indian semifinal, the youngster said: “I hope to recover after today’s draining game and be ready for (Kidambi) Srikanth’s attacking game.”