Lakshya Sen Returns To Winning Ways With Maiden Canada Open Title

Canada Open: Lakshya Sen defeated China's Li Shi Feng in the final.

Lakshya Sen won Canada Open 2023

photo: Badmintonphoto/ @senlakshya/Instagram

Indian badminton star, Lakshya Sen is back to winning ways as he defeated China’s Li Shi Feng to claim his maiden Canada Open title. Lakshya didn’t give his opponent any chance of taking authority as he won the game 21-18, 22-20.

This is Lakshya’s second BWF World Tour title. The Commonwealth champion earlier won India Open in January 2022. He went on to win a gold medal in Commonwealth Games held at Birmingham in the same year. This is the young shuttler’s first title after the Commonwealth Games and also his first title of the year.

Commenting on his victory, Lakshya said, “I think towards the second game, it was difficult for me to predict anything at that moment because I was trailing all the way and all I could think was to just cover the lead. But yeah, one thing that I never believe is that I am losing this set and I have to go. I gave all out in the second game as well and I think in the end, all got well and I think the key thing was to remain patient at the crucial moment and play the right tactical game.”

Speaking about his experience at the tournament, Lakshya said, “It was an amazing tournament for me. In terms of the match, I kept on getting better after the first round and I had a really good start. I was thinking about that in the beginning. As the tournament went ahead, I opened up a little bit more according to the conditions very well, and yeah, even yesterday and today, I played the good tactical games to win the matches.”

I Was Dominating Pretty Well: Lakshya Sen

Whilst offering respect to his opponent, Lakshya claimed he was happy with how he dominated the match. “Yeah I think it was a very solid game. He is a top opponent to play. You expect a very good match whenever I play against him. But the way I played today, I think I was dominating the net pretty well and I think he was also attacking but I think, in the crucial stages, I am happy I managed to pull the crucial ones."

Lakshya’s campaign at the Canada Open went flawlessly according to plans, following a nose surgery after the World Championships and was looking forward to a solid comeback after several unexpected eliminations from competitions. He defeated world no. 4 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the round of 32, followed by defeating Japan’s Kento Nishimoto, who is ranked 11 in the world, in the semi-finals.