FRESH from his title-winning run at the Hylo Open, ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen is looking to carry his momentum into the upcoming tournaments as he targets a strong finish to the season, with the BWF World Tour Finals firmly in his sights. Sen said the victory had provided a timely confidence boost after a challenging few months marked by injury concerns and a demanding travel schedule. “I’m happy with the way I played in Hylo. Winning a tournament after the Australian Open feels really good, and I want to carry this momentum forward,” said Sen, who rose eight places to reach the 10th spot in the BWF World Tour Rankings. The 2021 World Championships bronze medallist has to finish inside the top 8 to qualify for the season-ending BWF event. “We have another two to three weeks of tournaments coming up, followed by a relatively lighter schedule. I’m keeping the World Tour Finals in mind, I’m still in the race. I feel the next two tournaments are important as I look to finish the year strongly,” said Lakshya who is spending a few days at home before heading to Japan and Hong Kong. The 25-year-old from Almora, who reached the final of the All England Championships earlier this season, admitted that recurring niggles had affected his consistency over the last few months.

 

However, he said there were no major injury concerns at present and that he was being more cautious about managing his workload. “It was a good performance at the All England as well. However, over the next two to three months, I started experiencing a few niggles and injury issues that kept me from performing at my best, although nothing major kept me out of any big events. “Playing the World Championships in India and the Asian Games was a great experience. Obviously, the performances didn’t go as planned, but I was ready and out there fighting. As an athlete, you want to win every tournament, so I’m happy that things came together last week. “I had a couple of good performances, here and there, but again, there are certain matches where I was not 100% fit but for the rankings, you still got to compete in those. So, yeah, that is the challenge for every athlete out there, who is playing almost 365 days.” On managing injuries and regaining match fitness, Sen said constant travelling had left him with limited opportunities to experiment with his game in training. “I tried to work on certain aspects of my game during the tournaments I played, but managing injuries was a bit of a challenge over the last three to four months. “I tried a few different things to manage the workload. In the two to three months leading up to the Asian Games, I was preparing well and focusing on playing as many matches as possible. “Those matches helped me regain my match fitness. At certain events, like the World Championships, I felt I was lacking match practice. Since then, I’ve played quite a lot of matches. Even last week, I played five matches, which helped me perform well in the semi-finals and final.”