Interview: Lakshya Sen on his evolution, Worlds bronze on debut, training with Viktor Axelsen & more

In the last month alone, two videos of Lakshya Sen have gone viral in badminton circles.

The more recent, of course, is when he fought back from match point down against Zhao Jun Peng in the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships, winning three straight points from 19-20 down to be assured of his medal at the marquee event on his debut. It was badminton at its thrilling best, and without doubt, one of the matches of the tournament against a highly-rated Chinese shuttler. In that win, you could see the mental strength as well the attacking prowess of Lakshya. And, more importantly, it led to a memorable win.

But a couple of weeks earlier, trailing 13-21 4-14 against Viktor Axelsen at the BWF World Tour Finals semifinal, the match was all but over for Lakshya. He could have easily decided to take his foot off the pedal and go through the motions, it was after all already a memorable tournament for him to have made his debut in the season finale. But the 20-year-old produced one of the points of the year (the commentators even thought it could rival best saves in the history of the game) as he threw himself to the court…

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