Patience, precision and rest — How Lakshya Sen turned his 2026 season around with back-to-back titles

FILE PHOTO: With consecutive titles at the Hylo Open and the Kumamoto Masters in Japan, India’s Lakshya Sen has turned his 2026 season around. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Lakshya Sen’s 2026 season looked grim for a long while. At the BWF World Championships in New Delhi in August, he lost 21-19, 19-21, 17-21 to American teenager Garret Tan in the Round of 32. A month later, at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, he went out, in the Round of 32 again, losing 12-21, 21-15, 14-21 to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew after a first-round bye.

However, things are different now, and for the better.

On Sunday, the 25-year-old Lakshya won the Kumamoto Masters Japan, beating local favourite Koki Watanabe 13-21, 21-18, 21-14 in the final. He became the first Indian man to clinch the title, and it was his second straight BWF World Tour title after the Hylo Open in Saarbrücken, Germany. The triumph lifted him from 12th to sixth in the race to qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals standings, with 74,180 points. With one qualifying event - Hong Kong Open - still to come, the Indian is in a good position to make the top-eight cut-off for the season-ending tournament in Hangzhou.

The curious part is that his strokes have not changed. The shuttle taken early in the air, the disguised drops, the cross-court pressure and the nifty net play were all there in the earlier tournaments. What has changed is the judgment around them. Hastiness has turned into patience, and errors made under pressure have given way to calm finishing.

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The difference can be noticed by looking at where his season truly began. At the All England Open in March, Lakshya played like a man in a hurry. He met the shuttle early while it was still high in the air, taking time away from the opponent. He snapped cross-court net kills with sharp, downward finishes from just over the net and played tumbling drops that gave the left-handed Lin Chun-Yi no time to breathe. Deep clears and sudden drops sent Lin chasing every corner of the court. When the steep smashes came back, Lakshya’s low centre of gravity and quick split-steps flipped defence into attack with cross-court counter-lifts.

India's Lakshya Sen (in pic) lost to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in straight games in the All England Open final in March. | Photo Credit: AP

But playing on the edge came at a cost. Lakshya lost the final to Lin in straight games, 15-21, 20-22. The day before, he had battled severe cramps and blisters through a 97-minute semifinal against Canada’s Victor Lai, which took its toll. Fatigue crept in, small errors followed, and a final he was shaping became a grind he could not quite win. It was gutsy to even be there, and a lot harder than it needed to be.

The Indonesia Open in June told the same story. Alwi Farhan, playing at home, hammered half-smashes - a smash with less power and more placement - into Lakshya’s backhand corner. The Indian answered with precise clears and disguised drops, trading blow for blow. The games stayed tight well into the home stretch, and that is where the cracks showed. Under pressure, small errors decided the big points.

The turning point came in late October, when Lakshya withdrew from the French Open. Players rarely pull out of a tournament unless its something serious. This seemed more of a decision rather than a setback. He stepped away, reset, and arrived at the Hylo Open, ready to perform.

The Hylo Open showed a kind of improvement that is easy to miss. It was not about dominating matches from the first point. It was about winning them after they started going wrong. Joakim Oldorff pushed him early. Kiran George tested his legs and his patience in an all-Indian clash. Kalle Koljonen took the opening game of the quarterfinal. Each time, Lakshya did not flinch. He tightened his defence, lifted his tempo and waited for the rally to turn his way. A slow start had stopped being a verdict.

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Then came Toma Junior Popov, who had beaten him both times in their senior circuit meetings, including a heavy defeat at last year’s China Masters. The Frenchman’s aggressive baseline game made a late push in the opener but Lakshya soaked up the heavy attacks, held steady through long baseline exchanges and closed it out before running away with the second.

The performance in the final in Germany encapsulated the new Lakshya. Against Jonatan Christie, the early exchanges were fast and flat, with neither man giving ground. Court coverage and net touch slowly shifted the balance, and Lakshya led 11-9 going into the break. When Christie surged late with a flurry of cross-court smashes, Lakshya stayed calm and closed the game. In the second essay, Christie came out swinging. Lakshya absorbed it, countered cleanly and let the Indonesian’s errors pile up. By the break, the game was already tilting towards the Indian. The title followed soon after.

Lakshya won the Hylo Open on November 1. A day later, he withdrew from the Korea Open, another bold choice. It meant he reached Kumamoto with fresher legs.

At the Kumamoto Masters, calm demeanour and aiming for precision had replaced the old habit of rushing through the points. As the eighth seed, he beat Chi Yu-jen in straight games after a proper fight. Chi pushed in both games, but this time, Lakshya found his best exactly when it mattered, with cross-court pressure in the first game and net control in the second.

Dong Tian Yao was taught a tough lesson. His every lift was met early, every reply cut off, and the baseline kept dragging him away from the rally. When Dong found some rhythm in the second game, Lakshya simply slowed things down and shut the door at the net. The match lasted 35 minutes, and Dong left feeling outthought as much as outplayed.

Home favourite Yushi Tanaka met the sharpest version yet. Lakshya kept the first game tight at the net with barely an unforced error. Leading 11-9 in the second, he turned up the aggression with cross-court smashes and sharp mid-court pushes. The cushion built, the battle ended, and the winning streak stretched to eight matches. The same player who once let tight games adrift was now the one deciding when they ended.

The semifinal brought a familiar face in the 21-year-old Farhan, who had tested him at the Indonesia Open. This time, Lakshya took the first game 21-12, building points patiently and stepping in quickly at the net while Farhan rushed his shots and piled up unforced errors. Farhan tightened the screws in the second, restricting Lakshya’s court space and taking it 21-15. In the decider, Lakshya turned defence into offence, strung together his best run of the match and won 21-11 to reach the final.

If the Hylo Open was about patience, in Kumamoto, Lakshya showed his ability to bounce back . Against Koki Watanabe, Lakshya dropped the first game 13-21, exactly the kind of start that would once have turned into a defeat. Watanabe was steady from the baseline, with precise length of shuttles landing deep, right at the back line and solid defensive cover that kept Lakshya under pressure.

Lakshya Sen 🇮🇳 goes for gold against Koki Watanabe 🇯🇵. #BWFWorldTour #KumamotoMasters2026 https://t.co/H8JONftZsj

— BWF (@bwfmedia) November 15, 2026

Lakshya did not panic. He raised his intensity in the second game and tightened his net tumbles. He intercepted lifts at the front court and attacked Watanabe’s body with his smashes, leaving him with little room to swing. When Watanabe made his mid-game push, Lakshya held firm and took it 21-18 to force a decider.

In the third game, the old hurry came back but this time, it was a weapon rather than a weakness. Lakshya’s footwork was quick, his defensive reflexes were sharp, and his jump smashes were explosive. He set the pace of the rallies and pulled clear to win 21-14. It was the early season Lakshya again, with the speed and the shots, but now, he knew when to slow down.

When matches tilt, Lakshya now tightens up instead of tensing up, and he raises the tempo only when the rally asks for it. The French Open withdrawal, and the Hylo Open and the Kumamoto Masters titles together describe a player who decided to get better and then did it, point by point.