At the 2022 Thomas Cup final in Bangkok, Lakshya Sen lost his opening game to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-8. India had never won the competition, and its first singles player was being pushed around by one of Indonesia’s quickest attackers.
Sen recovered to win in three games. His teammates completed a 3-0 victory over the defending champions, turning an uncertain start into India’s first Thomas Cup title.
That comeback captured something important about the right-hander from Almora: his attacking game attracts attention, but his willingness to stay in difficult matches has helped deliver some of his biggest results.
A badminton childhood in Almora
Born on August 16, 2001, in Almora, Uttarakhand, Sen grew up with badminton already woven into family life. His grandfather, Chandra Lal Sen, helped develop the sport locally. His father, D.K. Sen, became a coach, while his elder brother, Chirag, also pursued a competitive playing career.
There was encouragement at home, but also a clear understanding of what training demanded. Badminton was not an unfamiliar ambition that the family had to learn about from scratch.
His mother, Nirmala, worked as a teacher and played an important role in supporting his move away from home. As a child, he began training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru, exchanging the familiar surroundings of Almora for a more demanding badminton environment.
The academy gave him stronger practice partners and a structured route towards international competition. Coaches also encountered a boy who disliked losing intensely. That competitiveness needed direction, not invention.
His name means “aim” or “goal,” a detail often mentioned in profiles. More consequential were the daily sessions, family support and willingness to leave home young.
Junior medals, then a foothold on the senior tour
Sen began appearing in senior international competition in 2014, well before his junior career was finished. For several seasons, age-group championships and senior tournaments ran alongside each other.
A bronze medal at the 2016 Asian Junior Championships signalled his promise. In 2017, he reached world junior number one.
The following season brought a fuller test of that standing. He won the boys’ singles title at the 2018 Asian Junior Championships, beating Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final, and took bronze at the World Junior Championships.
At the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, he won boys’ singles silver after losing the final to Li Shifeng. He also earned gold in the mixed-team competition, which used teams made up of players from different countries rather than conventional national squads.
The next task was translating junior success into senior results. In 2019, titles at the Dutch Open and SaarLorLux Open, both Super 100 events, gave him that foothold. They were smaller tournaments than the major tour stops, but winning them required him to negotiate full senior draws.
A world medal changes the scale
The breakthrough came in 2021. Sen qualified for the BWF World Tour Finals and then reached the semi-finals of the World Championships in Huelva.
There, he faced fellow Indian Kidambi Srikanth in a match that guaranteed India a finalist. Sen took the first game, but Srikanth recovered to win the next two. The younger player left with bronze, his first senior World Championships medal.
It was a significant step beyond promising junior results. He had reached the last four of a major individual championship, and the momentum carried into the next season.
In January 2022, he won the India Open, defeating reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew in the final. It was his first Super 500 title.
Two months later, he reached the All England final. Viktor Axelsen won in straight games, denying him the title at a tournament closely associated with his mentor, Prakash Padukone, who had won it in 1980.
Sen had nevertheless shown that he could contend across successive high-level events, rather than produce one isolated run.
The season that brought team history and singles gold
The Thomas Cup in May 2022 gave his progress a different setting. Individual rankings mattered less than contributing a point to India’s team total.
Against Indonesia in the final, his recovery against Ginting put India ahead. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then won the doubles, before Srikanth secured the title with victory over Jonatan Christie.
At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later that year, Sen faced another final that required a response after losing the opening game. Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong took the first, but Sen came back to win 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 and claim men’s singles gold.
He also won mixed-team silver with India.
The results were reflected in the rankings: on November 8, 2022, he reached a career-high world number six. The Arjuna Award that year added national recognition to a season already crowded with milestones.
Canada, team medals and the road to Paris
In 2023, Sen won the Canada Open, beating Li Shifeng in the final to claim another Super 500 title. Semi-final appearances at the US Open and Japan Open added useful results during the same stretch.
Team competition remained part of his calendar. He was in India’s bronze-medal-winning squad at the Asian Mixed Team Championships in Dubai and the men’s team that took silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Although officially called the 2022 Asian Games, that event was held in 2023 following its postponement.
The Olympic qualification period brought pressure as well as opportunity. Semi-final runs at the French Open and All England in March 2024 helped strengthen his position before Paris.
At the Olympics, he defeated Christie in the group stage, then beat compatriot H.S. Prannoy in the round of 16. A three-game quarter-final victory over Chou Tien-chen made him the first Indian man to reach an Olympic badminton singles semi-final.
The medal remained out of reach. Axelsen beat him in the semi-final, and Lee Zii Jia recovered from a game down to win their bronze-medal match.
Fourth place was both a national milestone and a painful near miss. Sen had put himself within one victory of the podium twice, without finding that final win.
Speed, defence and a willingness to attack
Sen’s game is built around quick movement and the ability to turn a defensive exchange into an attacking one. His smash is a weapon, but so is the speed with which he gets into position to use it.
He can absorb steep attacks, retrieve from awkward positions and then change the direction of a rally with a flat counter or an early interception. At his best, that makes opponents work to finish points they appear to control.
His challenge against the strongest players is not simply generating power. It is choosing when to accelerate, keeping enough length on his lifts and avoiding loose replies when rallies become physically demanding.
Axelsen has been a particularly important benchmark, beating him in both the 2022 All England final and the Paris Olympic semi-final. Other opponents-including Ginting, Christie and Li Shifeng-have featured at different turning points, rather than one rivalry defining his career.
His development has remained closely linked to the Bengaluru academy, with Vimal Kumar a longstanding coaching influence and Padukone an important mentor.
Away from the match court
Family is the most consistent thread in Sen’s public story. His father understands the sport from a coach’s perspective; his brother knows the demands of competition firsthand. His mother’s support helped make the early move to Bengaluru possible.
That background gives his career a personal dimension without needing speculation about relationships or private routines. The journey from Almora was a family undertaking, even when he was the one travelling to tournaments and playing the matches.
His commercial partnerships have included Yonex and Red Bull. Equipment and sponsorship arrangements can change, but those associations reflect the profile he built through international results.
The strongest picture of his life away from competition is still grounded in the people and places that shaped him: a badminton family in Uttarakhand, an academy in Bengaluru and years spent moving between training blocks and tournament halls.
FAQ
Where is Lakshya Sen from?
He was born in Almora, Uttarakhand, India, on August 16, 2001. He later moved to Bengaluru for badminton training.
What is his highest world ranking?
He reached world number six in men’s singles on November 8, 2022.
What are his biggest titles?
His major individual titles include the 2022 India Open, 2022 Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold and 2023 Canada Open. He also helped India win the 2022 Thomas Cup.
Has he won an Olympic medal?
He finished fourth at the 2024 Paris Olympics, losing to Viktor Axelsen in the semi-final and Lee Zii Jia in the bronze-medal match.
Where does he train, and who has coached him?
His development has been centred on the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru. Vimal Kumar has been a longstanding coaching influence, with Padukone also serving as a mentor.
Has he won a World Championships medal?
Yes. He won men’s singles bronze at the 2021 World Championships in Huelva, Spain.
Photo: Sandro Halank , Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
