– Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
He waves at the crowd, urges them to get behind him and they react vociferously. Schoolgirls hound him for selfies and a group of them even breached the security cordon to get closer to him after the first-round match at the India Open. He is Lakshya Sen, the poster boy of Indian badminton, something that every sport needs.
Obviously, performance has got more to do with this than looks. The second he has in good measure, but the first is something that has propelled him to 10th in the world rankings. Lakshya was on song on Tuesday while outplaying World No 8 HS Prannoy 21-14, 21-15 in 43 minutes of complete domination. It was revenge, too, since Lakshya had lost to Prannoy in the first round of the Malaysian Open last week.
But that was a three-game affair, closer than the no-contest witnessed at the KD Jadhav Hall of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. Lakshya raced away with the first game before Prannoy realised what was going on. He did take a one-point lead twice in the second game, but each time, Lakshya promptly seized the initiative back. While everything was going in Lakshya’s favour, Prannoy made things tougher for himself by committing a slew of unforced errors.
“In Malaysia, I struggled to find the right length while hitting. Today, I was in control from the beginning. The crowd support helped. Once I got off to a good start, I was determined not to let him back in the match. My smashes and half smashes worked. I felt I was in good shape and capitalised on that. This kind of a win gives a lot of confidence,” said Lakshya.
After conceding the first point of the match to Prannoy, Lakshya wasted no time in taking the lead and kept stretching the lead. He was targeting Prannoy’s back-hand side with his smashes and collected a few points down that side with the shot. His retrieving was acrobatic and timely, which perhaps added to the frustration of his opponent, who kept finding the net at key moments apart from hitting far and wide. Somewhat aptly, the first game got over when Prannoy netted another.
The second game was closer on paper, not effectively. Unlike the first, Prannoy did not let Lakshya race away and even took the lead at 9-8. That’s when the game turned again. Lakshya started playing aggressively and caught Prannoy by surprise with a couple of smashes aimed at the forehand side. He kept mixing his shots and took a decisive lead at 16-11. There was no looking back after that.
Lakshya next faces Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke who beat former world champion Kento Momota in the first set of matches on the opening day. “I am not looking too far ahead and taking it one step at a time. Yes, I saw that match. Tomorrow is a rest day for me. I have a bit of time to start preparing for that match. Today the crowd support during my match was divided. On the next day, they will all be rooting for me,” said Lakshya. Needless to say, decibel levels will be higher on Thursday.