NEW DELHI, April 27: With five titles under his belt, Lakshya Sen was racing towards the top echelons of international badminton before his stunning run was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought all competitive action to a halt across the world.
With the world in lockdown to contain the deadly disease, Lakshya too is enduring the uncertain times within the confines of his apartment, near the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru.
�I was looking forward to play big tournaments, compete against better players and try to make it to top 15 this year. But then everything stopped suddenly, all tournaments suspended. Now I don�t know when they will resume,� Lakshya told PTI.
The 18-year-old from Uttarakhand was in sensational form in the senior circuit last year as he claimed as many as five titles, including two BWF World Tour Super 100 top honours � SaarLorLux Open and Dutch Open � to zoom to 32nd rank by the end of the year.
He is currently placed 27th in the world rankings.
He continued his good run early this year, claiming a big win over Asian Games gold-medallist Jonathan Christie of Indonesia at the Badminton Asia Team Championships and then putting up an impressive show against former world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the second round of the All England Championships.
Lakshya was looking forward to the Swiss Open (March 17-22) but All England turned out to be the last tournament before the BWF suspended all action.
In fact, he was in the middle of the tournament when government�s travel restrictions came into force.
�I had a match to play (second round) when the Ministry had announced travel restrictions. I didn�t think much about it but by the time I had played my match, BWF had cancelled the tournaments.
�So, we booked tickets and returned. Initially our plans were to go to Swiss from there,� said the soft-spoken Indian. � PTI
