When Lakshya Sen finally hit the shuttle into the crowd on Sunday night after his most comprehensive win of the week to claim the Syed Modi India International Super 300, it was not just him celebrating a title win. Given the challenges Indian badminton faced throughout the year, it was a cathartic moment for fans of the sport, reigniting hope for a more promising future in the coming year.
Before Lakshya, the centre court at the Babu Banarasi Das UP Badminton Academy had already witnessed three Indians being crowned champions in a competition that has been a happy hunting ground for the home favourites.
While PV Sindhu expectedly claimed her third title in the city to join compatriot Saina Nehwal as the only three-time winners, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand wrote itself into the history books as the first Indian women’s duo to win the title since the tournament’s inception in 2009. But Lakshya’s win was the most dominating.
It was a fitting end to a week — and the year for the two top-seeded singles stars — that began on a less-than-promising note. Even before action could get underway in the City of Nawabs, India’s continued struggles in the sport widely considered as the second most popular after cricket had suffered yet another setback. The top-seeded men’s pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Sat-Chi), withdrew from the competition citing injury concerns and a focus on rehabilitation ahead of the next season. The tournament, which once featured legends like Tommy Sugiarto, Viktor Axelsen, and Taufik Hidayat at their peak, as well as champions like Carolina Marin and Nozomi Okuhara in the women’s category, had a significantly weaker field this year. Across all sections of the draw, Indian players dominated, with foreign participation largely limited to those chasing crucial ranking points ahead of year-end. The absence of top-ranked players, even from the list of withdrawals, underscored the lack of star power, as many are instead focusing on the upcoming season-ending BWF World Tour Finals.
Consider this: Five of the top eight seeds in both singles draws were Indians, including rising youngsters like Aakarshi Kashyap and Ayush Shetty. The highest-ranked men’s foreign player was Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh, ranked 39th in the world. Among the women, Pornpicha Choeikeewong of Thailand was the top-ranked foreign player at 48 in the world. While the former managed to reach the final before being dismantled by Lakshya in half an hour, the latter was knocked out early.
Three-peat show: PV Sindhu claimed her third title to join compatriot Saina Nehwal as the only three-time winner at the Syed Modi India International Super 300 tournament in Lucknow. | Photo Credit: SANDEEP SAXENA
To be fair, the entries or interest from overseas players are neither the problem nor a concern for the Indians in the fray. They have had their own fair share of worries, of form, fitness and results haunting them all through the year, none more than the two top seeds, who faltered on the biggest stage of all, the Paris Olympics.
While Sindhu was always an outsider to the medal prospects — she had last won a title at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and reached the final of a BWF Tour event only twice since then — Lakshya’s fourth-place finish was a big shock. The youngster was one of the medal favourites and lived up to the billing in the initial stages before losing from winning positions in knockouts, raising questions on his mental toughness from none other than coach and legend Prakash Padukone.
Although he was accompanied by his father here, Lakshya ruled out any change in the immediate future. “I don’t think there are any major changes needed to be made. A lot of good things also happened throughout the year, and some that I can surely improve, so I just need to continue focusing on them while planning ahead. No big changes are planned; just trying to continue good training and improve in every way. The process is to be a better player all the time, and that will continue,” he said when asked about any possible change in his coaching team.
Syed Modi was a tale of contrasts. Sindhu grew in confidence and performance with each match, rediscovering her love for the game and staying positive throughout, often smiling and sharing her insights. Lakshya, meanwhile, was all business—focused, efficient, and reserved. He dominated his matches with minimal interaction, showing only a brief smile after the final as his sole expression of emotion.
It was in the doubles that the Indians truly had a chance to prove themselves, and they duly obliged, none more than the 21-year-olds Treesa and Gayatri. As the only Indians to have qualified for the Tour Finals, the duo has already proven it is in for the long haul. In Lucknow, the two showed how much they had put in to reach this level over the last few years. “We just wanted to win very badly and kept moving, kept fighting,” they said after winning the final.
That desperation to win was visible on the court too. Despite being stretched to hour-long, three-game matches multiple times, the pair kept finding more in the tank to stay in the hunt and sustain every day all through the week. With every match, various areas of their gameplay kept getting highlighted — if it was the precision of drops in one, it was the rock-solid defence in another, and the ability to dig deep for power at others. Clearly, the youngsters are marked for greater heights. However, the men’s and the mixed doubles remain a concern. While Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto managed to show glimpses of possible growth as a pair in their second-place finish, the absence of a genuine successor to Sat-Chi was clearly felt among the men. But in a year that had too many lows and sparingly few highs, Indian badminton fans will take all they can get. Fingers crossed for a better 2025.
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