Lakshya Sen’s first title of 2025 came in the penultimate month and in his last tournament of the year, giving his challenging season a glossy finish and boosting his confidence at a time he needed it the most.
The 24-year-old Indian beat unseeded Yushi Tanaka 21-15, 21-11 in just 38 minutes to win the BWF Australian Open Super 500 on Sunday. It was a controlled performance against an inexperienced opponent, which displayed the improvements he’s been trying to make in his game. He mixed up his shot speed and placement, his attack was sharper, and he was deft at the net – all elements he is adding to his naturally counterpunching, athletic game style. He was also mentally steady, while his opponent let the occasion get to him in a flurry of unforced errors as he tried to faze Lakshya.
“In the second set I was quite far off in the lead, but I didn’t want to get too inside my head so I wouldn’t relax too much. In the back of my mind, it was there but I was just trying to focus on playing one point at a time,” he said after the match.
The physical versatility and mental solidity are both massive positives for Lakshya to take back from the tournament and the season. Throughout 2025, he has struggled with consistency and has either lost focus or steam in matches just before the finish line. To overcome that in a final, irrespective of the relative inexperience of the opponent, is a big step in his development.
The final was also a stark contrast from his semifinal win a day before, when he needed 86 minutes and had to save three match points to beat veteran and world no 6 Chou Tien Chen 17-21, 24-22, 21-16. His resilience was put to the ultimate test by the 35-year-old who makes every match a battle, and Lakshya held his nerve to get an epic win, which helped end his season on a high. Later, his childhood coach and mentor Vimal Kumar revealed that Lakshya had fever the night before his semifinal, which makes his physically draining effort even more noteworthy.
The Australian Open may not have had the strongest of fields, but it was not an easy tournament, and Lakshya had a long road to the final in terms of time spent on court, with long matches against Chu Yu Jen, compatriot Ayush Shetty and then of, course, the marathon against Chou.
A hard-fought semifinal. A dominant final. In between these diametrically opposite two matches lies the conundrum that is Lakshya Sen and how he can look back on his 2025 season.
In 2025, Lakshya had a 23-18 record on the BWF Tour (excluding the Badminton Asia championships). On the face of it, more wins than losses is a positive record in a season plagued with injuries and early exits. To end with a title, which keeps his streak of winning at least one title a year since 2022 is a big positive. This is also his first title outside India since July 2023 when he won the Canada Open Super 500, and first title since the Syed Modi International Super 300 last November.
For a player of Lakshya’s calibre, however, this has the feel of an unfulfilled season. That he had 10 first round exits in a year is stark for India’s No 1 player. That he has the potential to be a top player has never been in doubt, but his lack of finishing touch, particularly mentally, means his results haven’t matched up to the promise.
Lakshya had captured the attention of a wider Indian sporting audience when he reached the bronze medal match at the Paris Olympics last year, and despite a crushing fourth-place finish, the expectations from him were high.
There was a lot of scar tissue from that close Olympics miss, as was seen in subsequent spate of early losses on the tour. The mental block, so often associated with him, was back as he struggled to win matches from beneficial positions at the end of the 2024. The tough words of mentor Prakash Padukone after the Olympics could not have been easy, but the results were proving them true. That he wrapped his season with the Syed Modi International Super 300 at home was some consolation, but there was work to be done for the next season.
Sadly, the 2025 season started no better as he had a slump of early losses again. He showed sparks of his old self – quarterfinals at the All England Open, semi-finals at the Japan Masters, final at the Hong Kong Open – but it was far and few between.
He also suffered a back injury, which significantly reduced his usually reliable physicality. He then dropped in the rankings again, which meant no seeding and tougher draws – like playing world No 1 Shi Yu Qi in the World Championship opener. Through it all, he was also working to make his game more versatile, something that was seen this past week.
It can’t have been an easy time, on court or in his head. “I have seen a lot of ups and downs this season, with a few injuries at the start of the season but I kept my hard work going throughout the season and I am very happy to end the season on a good note,” he said in Sydney. “I’m very excited, looking forward to the next season now and I am really happy with the way I played today and this week.”
Ending another tough season with a title, irrespective of the strength of the field, is a boost that he can build on in the off-season. It’s also rare, good news for Indian badminton in a season where there has been very little to celebrate this year.
