Lakshya Sen with his coach and former national champion Sayali Gokhale. Courtesy: TwitterNew Delhi: Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen on Thursday clinched the Bulgaria Open International Series title after notching up a hard-fought win over Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak in the men's singles final in Sofia.
The Uttarakhand shuttler, who celebrated his 16th birthday on Wednesday, defeated second seed Zvonimir 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 in a 57-minute match. He had beaten Sri Lanka's Dinuka Karunaratna 21-19, 21-14 in the semifinal on Wednesday.
World junior No. 1 Lakshya was recently sent to train under former All England champion Peter Gade, who is currently the head coach of the French national team.
Lakshya had reached the final of the senior national championships in February.
"It is a creditable achievement for Lakshya. He is still a junior, but he has been able to win tournaments and that is a good sign. We had sent five players on a 10-day training trip with the French national team. He trained under the great Peter Gade and it has benefited him," coach Vimal Kumar told PTI.
"He had a good tournament. He beat top seed Sam Parsons in the first round. He won the junior nationals and also was finalist at the senior nationals this year and it gave him a lot of confidence to beat top players like H.S. Prannoy.
So I feel if groomed properly, he does have a great future," Kumar said.
Last year, Lakshya had won the India International Series and clinched a bronze at the CPB Badminton and Sports Science Training Center in Thailand.
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