PODIUM CHASER

A handful of medals in the past six months has made Lakshya Sen the new poster boy of Indian badminton  

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN

History hung heavy in the air as Lakshya Sen entered Utilita Arena Birmingham on March 20. India had sent four finalists to the All-England Open—the world’s oldest badminton tournament—before the 20-year-old from Uttarakhand. Three of the four were household names—Prakash Padukone, Pullela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal. The fourth one was not, but had, perhaps, the most interesting story. Prakash Nath had won a coin toss against teammate Devinder Mohan to enter the 1947 semi-finals in England. They knew each other’s game inside out, and knew that whoever won their gruelling quarterfinal would be exhausted going into the semi-finals. Hence, they flipped for it.

Nath breezed past the semi-final but lost at the last hurdle. He had apparently read about the partition in the newspapers on the morning of the final; his hometown of Lahore was in flames, and he went into the final in a daze.

He is said to have never touched a racket again.

Surely, none of this was on Lakshya’s mind. He had just beaten the defending champion—Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia—the previous night and had been cheered on by Sachin Tendulkar on Twitter. Also, just a week ago, he had upset the man who stood before him in Birmingham.

Viktor Axelsen knew this, of course. The great Dane, world number one and Olympic champion, was gunning for his second All-England title, and had had a good look at the young man across from him. He had, after all, called the Indian Sen-sation— along with four others—to train with him in Dubai six months ago.