New Delhi: Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen clinched the Bulgaria Open Badminton International Series title after notching up a hard-fought 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 win Thursday over Croatia’s Zvonimir Durkinjak in the men’s singles final in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The Uttarakhand shuttler, who celebrated his 16th birthday Wednesday had earlier beaten Sri Lanka’s Dinuka Karunaratna 21-19, 21-14 in the semifinals.
The World Junior No.1 was recently sent to train under former All England champion Peter Gade, who is currently the head coach of French national team.
“It is a creditable achievement for Lakshya. He is still a junior but he has been able to win a senior tournament 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,” Vimal Kumar, who coaches Lakshya, said.
“He had a good tournament. He beat the top seed Sam Parsons in the first round. He won the junior National title 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,” Kumar added.
Asked about the upcoming tournaments that Lakshya would be playing in, Vimal said: “He is concentrating on building 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 Championships.”
press trust of india
