Youth Incorporated Magazine

On Sunday, 13th October, an 18-year-old Indian shuttler, Lakshya Sen, won his maiden BWF World Tour title. He bagged this title by winning the Dutch Open in the men’s single category. In this category, he defeated Japan’s Yusuke Onodera.

As per PTI, this young sportsperson defeated his world no. 160 opponent 15-21 21-14 21-15. This final match lasted for 63 minutes. In the opening game of the BWF, Lakshya had fallen behind and couldn’t speed up despite coming as close as 10-11 and 13-14. His opponent Yusuke Onodera, on the other hand, managed to keep his head high thus keeping the bragging rights in the opening game.

The second game got intense where the competition became tough. Though our player grabbed an 8-5 lead, his opponent managed to crawl back. Keeping himself afloat in the competition, Lakshya Sen managed to score 12-8 after pocketing four straight points. Then too, Onodera scored 11-12. Not losing hope and courage, our champ jumped to 18-11, establishing a strong place in the match.

During the time of the decider, Lakshya succeeded in keeping his opponent at a distance. This strategy of his helped him to first take the lead of 9-4 and then 11-8 at the break. Post interval, Lakshya kept moving forward slowly crushing Onodera’s chances of success.

Now, Lakshya Sen has become the 72nd winner. The Dutch Open is a BWF World Tour Super 100 tournament. Prior to this, Sen had won the Belgian Open in the last month and also reached the finals of Polish Open this year. He has also won the Asian Junior Championships. Further, he has won a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games and a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in the previous year.