"Twinkle twinkle little star, Lakshya bhai superstar"
As the cheer that rang out at the Indira Gandhi Stadium suggests, Lakshya Sen has a star-like aura at the BWF World Championships in New Delhi.
He got the loudest cheer of the day when he entered the stadium, this on a Tuesday evening for a first-round match against a 128-ranked Austrian player. Fans across age groups and genders line up the bannisters calling him out to wave at them, and he obliged as he walked out after the match.
In between these two though, Lakshya had to come down to earth and battle it out in an opener that required him to mentally recalibrate in front of an adoring audience in an arena with difficult drift.
The 14th seed beat Collins Filimon Valentine 16-21, 21-8, 21-4 in 45 minutes in his 2026 World Championship opener. And if that scorelines looks weird, the match was even more so. He looked tentative, struggled with controlling the shuttle from the windier side and his opponent's 190 cm height and smashes had him in a bind. He then adjusted from the slower side, his experience and endurance - and his opponent's lack of it - making a visible difference.
The more subtle difference, less visible to the eye, was fear; the nerves of playing this World Championship at home, and overcoming it to play freely.
"There was wind in the stadium and it was the first match, so my tactics were not working... Every time I played a shot, I was scared it would go out if I gave it too much power. That is why I wasn't playing as freely in the first set," he told reporters after.
"In the second set, playing patiently was important because I knew it was the first round and there was a bit of pressure. I'm happy the game plan worked. By the third game, I was quite confident right from the start. My body language and execution were much better than in the first game."
Bonafide superstar ✨
Lakshya Sen gives his thoughts on a battling opening round performance at the BWF World Championships 2026! 🏸#bwfworldchampionships#newdelhi2026#smashforIndia pic.twitter.com/3hZhi90ULm
- BAI Media (@BAI_Media) August 18, 2026
After the fatigue of the match and three different on-camera interviews before he came to press, this felt like an impressive moment of candour from the youngster. To casually mention pressure and bad body language against a world no. 128 from Europe when you are the top-ranked Indian in men's singles may seem incongruous. But with the size of the spotlight on Lakshya at home in Delhi, it is inevitable. More so after his academy mate Ayush Shetty achieved the improbable yesterday by knocking out world no. 1 Shu Yu Qi.
"Pehla match nahi haarna, Lakshya" (don't lose your first match, Lakshya), muttered someone in the stands when he dropped the first game. Most of the loud crowd was screaming their lungs out for him with chants more common in cricket stadiums than badminton arenas in India. But they didn't have much to celebrate as Lakshya continued to look passive while earning points off the Austrian's errors from the slow side. He didn't have clear winners or even clean striking till halfway in the match.
And then something clicked - Lakshya won 11 straight points to force a decider and then dropped only four points in it. That was more like the Lakshya performance the crowd expected, the one they came for and in the end, were treated to. There was no celebration from him, but he was quick to acknowledge and thank the crowd after the win. Even in the first round, he had a final-like atmosphere and he recognised it.
The India no. 1 survived the scare in the opening round but will be wary of how his future opponents will use this. Issues with drift are not new for Lakshya, and he has been training at the big hall at the National Centre for Excellence in Guwahati to combat just this. "The main goal going there was to get used to conditions because we had a bit of time after our last tournament to prepare," he said.
Preparation is done, but now it will be a question of patience for Lakshya in the next rounds. His section of the draw saw fifth seed Christo Popov knocked out in the opener, in what is shaping up to be a very intense men's singles competition with early upsets.
The good thing is Lakshya has assimilated this and is sure to work on this from now on. After all, who wouldn't want to continue feeling a superstar at home?