“Billion Voices Cheering You On”: Anand Mahindra Ahead Of Lakshya Sen’s All England Open Badminton Championships Final | Badminton News

Lakshya Sen is on the cusp of becoming only the third Indian to win a title at the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships. The 20-year-old Sen will take on World No.1 Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final on Sunday. Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand are the only Indians to have ever won the All England Badminton Championships. India’s rising badminton star has been in top form in recent times. He secured his maiden world championships bronze in December, before winning his first Super 500 title at India Open in January and finishing runner-up at the German Open last week.

Incidentally, Lakshya Sen beat Axelsen enroute to the final at the German Open.

Ahead of the much-awaited final, Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to hail the “challenger spirit” of Lakshya Sen, saying that the Indian shuttler is “a global champion in the making”.

“Just look at the challenger spirit of @lakshya_sen We are witnessing a global champion in the making… My Sunday is now spoken for; will be watching the final. Rise today, Lakshya…There’s over a billion voices cheering you on,” wrote Anand Mahindra to go along with a video of the Lakshya’s semi-final win over defending champion Lee Zii Jia.

Just look at the challenger spirit of @lakshya_sen We are witnessing a global champion in the making… My Sunday is now spoken for; will be watching the final. Rise today, Lakshya…There’s over a billion voices cheering you on… https://t.co/6nUUXcjUZB

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 20, 2022

On Saturday, Sen beat sixth seeded Lee of Malaysia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in a gruelling semi-final that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.

“I was definitely nervous but I was just trying to play one point at a time and not the occasion,” said Sen after his win over the Malaysian.

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“Towards the end, I was just trying to not thing about the things that was going around, it was an All England semifinal and the thoughts were coming in but I was trying to keep myself focussed.”

(With PTI inputs)