All England has given me self-belief to beat big players: Lakshya Sen

All England Championships final has given him the self-belief to beat top players but Indian shutter Lakshya Sen on Tuesday said he will need to maintain his fitness going into the upcoming big-ticket events. The 20-year-old from Uttarakhand has been sensational en route to the men's singles final at Birmingham, and he attributed his transformation to the experience of playing in Indonesia and the World Championships last year. He also said the hard work he put in to improve his fitness during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped.

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Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen's silver medal winning feat at the All England Badminton Championships helped him break into the top 10 of the latest BWF World Ranking on Tuesday. The 20-year-old, who became only the fifth Indian to reach the summit clash of All England Championships, improved two

"I had a lot of time in the pandemic where I could improve my fitness to the next level. As a junior player I would go on attack and play smashes all the time but, in big venues, you have to play a patient game and build on those winners and then go for attack," he said. "I played a lot of tournaments after the pandemic, especially in Indonesia and World championships and it gave me the self-belief and realisation that I can't go for attack all the time and have to play a patient game and the transformation happened there. "Those matches against Viktor (Axelsen), Kento Momota and Kenta Tsukamoto also gave me the confidence to play. A lot has changed since I played Viktor in 2020. There is a difference in my approach and now I have the self-belief to go out there and beat the big players."

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