With just 12 tournaments left before the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifications are sealed, star India shuttler Lakshya Sen has a lot to doin 2024. Last year saw a massive drop in his performances, where he dropped out of top-10, but now, he is determined to make it count, and secure his berth.
“To secure the spot I still have to work a little more harder in terms of getting good results, and once that is done, the qualification won’t be an issue,” Sen told PTI. “For me, right now the main concern is to go deep into the tournament in the next few months until April and then ranking will follow. As of now, we are not in a comfortable stage in the qualification ranking.
“I would like to improve my ranking and come in the top-10 by the end of qualification.” The current WR-17, Sen had won the Canada Open in July, and made it to three semis last year. But what really hampered his progress was, he was ousted from the first rounds, on 11 occasions.
“I was not at my best, I was trying to fight every game but somehow I couldn’t find that momentum. I really can’t pinpoint one aspect. I mean, physical aspect would be one but there are few other on-court things,” Sen said.
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“I played a lot of tournaments in 2023, I didn’t get time to prepare well or work hard on fitness. Last six weeks I have had time to train. So my fitness level has improved, last few weeks I have been focusing on on-court training, gradually increasing the intensity.
“I worked on some specific things like playing more sharper strokes from the backcourt, being confident enough to keep the shuttle in play.”
