Lakshya Sen, Junior World No. 1, grabs Bulgaria Open International Series title

World No. 1 junior shuttler, Lakshya Sen clinched Bulgaria Open International Series title after knocking down second seeded Croatia’s Zvonimir Durkinjak in the men’s finals in Sofia, Bulgaria.

With 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 scoreline Uttarakhand shuttler, passed Zvonimir in 57-minute battle. In the semi-finals, Lakshya defeated Dinuka Karunaratna of Sri Lanka by 21-19, 21-14 the earlier day. Having been maintaining the top rank among juniors since past a few months, Lakshya Sen, sent to be trained under All England champion Peter Gade, the current head coach of French national team. The young lad seems to be the next for India, as he already into the limelight; reaching the finals of Senior National championship in the recent past. Also, Sen won India International Series and clinched a bronze at CPB Badminton and sports Science Training Center in Thailand.

"It is a creditable achievement for Lakshya. He is still a junior but he has been able to win tournaments and that is a good sign. We had sent five players on a 10-day training trip with the French national team. He trained under the great Peter Gade and it has benefitted him," coach Vimal Kumar said, as quoted by TOI.

"He had a good tournament. He beat the top seed Sam Parsons in the first round. He won the junior National and also was finalist at Senior Nationals this year and it gave him a lot of confidence to beat top players like HS Prannoy. So I feel if groomed properly, he does have a great future," Vimal added.

Talking about upcoming tournaments of 16th year old, Vimal said, “He is concentrating on his strength. We have former national champion Sayali Gokhale attached to him and she travels with him.

"In two months time, he will be playing Vietnam Grand Prix and then it would be junior World championship," he added.