Since August 2024, Lakshya Sen has been India’s top men’s singles shuttler with his ranking ranging between 10 and 20.
The 24-year-old peaked in 2021 and 2022. During this time, apart from winning titles on the BWF World Tour, Sen also won a World Championships bronze, reached the All England Open final, won the Commonwealth Games gold and reached a career-high ranking of No.6.
But his performance graph has dipped since then. The Almora-born player won an odd tournament or two but a share of injuries and subsequent surgeries could be blamed for his dip in form. Round 1 or 2 exits became the norm, causing him to drop to No.25 in the world. But even when Sen was completely fit, he was never able to consistently replicate the explosive badminton he had displayed earlier.
Until the second half of last year. Sen first reached the Macau Open semis before making his first final at Hong Kong in September. He then followed it up with a semi-final appearance at Japan Masters before clinching the Australian Open in November — his first title outside India in 28 months.
“It was nice to see him in the latter part of last year. There were some really positive and stable aspects. His challenge for the past couple of years has been to maintain a high standard in every tournament. Sometimes he will show things that we know he can do and then there will be some tournaments where he can’t,” Danish great and former world No.1 Peter Gade told HT from Copenhagen.
“For Lakshya’s sake, we saw some of the stuff that he’s able to do. In order for him to believe that he can do well on the big occasions, he needs to feel that his A game is working. And then of course the body also needs to be 100% before you can expect your A game to come.”
This year too Sen’s form has been quite topsy-turvy but far better than last year when he exited almost all tournaments in the early rounds. In 2026, Sen reached Round 2 in Malaysia, the quarters in India and Indonesia before losing his only game at the Asia Team Championships earlier this month.
Next up is the European leg of the World Tour where Sen will be eyeing a return to the podium at the German Open and All England Open — events where Sen reached the finals in 2022. It was at the German Open semis back then that Sen defeated two-time Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, who is coached by Gade, the only time Sen has beaten the Dane in nine meetings.
“The game has changed a bit on his part. For Lakshya, it’s about finding consistency. We have seen on quite some occasions over the past years — also at the Paris Olympics which was a good tournament for him. The consistency in a tournament requires performing not just one or two matches at a high level but five. You need these five matches to win the tournament,” said Gade, a former All England champion.
A gifted defensive player, Sen added some attacking shots to his arsenal last year which were clearly visible in the competitions where he performed well. Despite pressure, he moved better and played some outrageous deceptive shots which was also a hallmark of Gade, who retired in 2012.
“I have followed Lakshya. I know him. I hope he’s able to find his consistency. You can feel that he’s really searching for it. But this is only the tactical part. Then there is the physical part. Lakshya has played for many years, so the body will take its toll,” added the 49-year-old Gade.
“That is also a challenge — how to keep the body in a state where it’s possible to perform at the highest level, tournament after tournament, be clever about planning, so you can take out small periods to focus on rehab and strengthening the parts that you need to strengthen. That is definitely not easy. Not with these many tournaments.”
Axelsen’s return
Gade’s protégé and two-time world champion Axelsen has been off the circuit since competing at the French Open last October. Despite suffering a back injury, the Dane won India Open and German Open following which he underwent endoscopic surgery to repair a disc herniation in April 2025. He made an impressive comeback in September but his back again forced him to take a break from the circuit.
“It’s not an easy situation, but Viktor is working the best he can and hopefully he can find a way to solve the challenge with the back. It was really nice for him to be back in September-October (2025). He did two amazing tournaments (Denmark Open semis and French Open quarters) considering he was away for quite a long time,” said Gade, who apart from coaching Axelsen also runs his academy in Copenhagen.
“He had the operation, came back and still performed at a very, very high level. But of course, he needs more time. He needs the body to be in as good a condition as possible in order to perform at the highest level.”
