<p>Bengaluru: India’s leading men’s shuttler Lakshya Sen said his focus for the rest of the 2026 season is on the two marquee events on the calendar -- BWF World Championships (August) and Asian Games (September) -- as he looks to manage his fitness after a draining week at the All England Open Badminton Championship in Birmingham.</p>.<p>The 24-year-old shuttler, who finished runner-up at the prestigious event for the second time in his career, has opted to skip the Swiss Open in Basel, which began on Tuesday, choosing to give his body some recovery time instead after a physically demanding run.</p>.<p>“Yes, I think those two are the major events that I will be playing this year: World Championships and Asian Games,” said Lakshya during a media interaction.</p>.<p>“Before the All England, I had some really good training weeks and the idea was to build up to that tournament and peak well there. Now that I’ve just come back, I want to sit with my team and analyse the tournament a bit deeper; how the week went, how the training block before it worked and what we can improve.” The world No. 12 endured a challenging path to the final, beating top seed Shi Yuqi in the opening round before overcoming Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long and former champion Li Shifeng in the later rounds.</p>.<p>He then battled through a gruelling semifinal against Canada’s Victor Lai to book his place in the title clash.For a tournament like the All England, where the world’s best players are stacked across the draw, a deep run usually means pushing the body to the limit and Lakshya admitted the physical toll of the week began to show by the closing stages, particularly after the marathon semifinal of 97 minutes.</p>.<p>“I mean, the last semifinal that I played took some toll on the body, especially when I was cramping during the match. I did everything I could to recover well and come back fresh on the finals day as well. But yeah, the cramping in the semifinals was a little bit too hard to fully recover from the next day,” he said.</p>.<p>“Even during the match and after it, the muscles were under a lot of strain. Quite long matches the whole week, right from day one they were long games. Eventually, the muscles got tired. But I guess it was similar for my opponent as well because he had also played five matches that week.”</p>
<p>Bengaluru: India’s leading men’s shuttler Lakshya Sen said his focus for the rest of the 2026 season is on the two marquee events on the calendar -- BWF World Championships (August) and Asian Games (September) -- as he looks to manage his fitness after a draining week at the All England Open Badminton Championship in Birmingham.</p>.<p>The 24-year-old shuttler, who finished runner-up at the prestigious event for the second time in his career, has opted to skip the Swiss Open in Basel, which began on Tuesday, choosing to give his body some recovery time instead after a physically demanding run.</p>.<p>“Yes, I think those two are the major events that I will be playing this year: World Championships and Asian Games,” said Lakshya during a media interaction.</p>.<p>“Before the All England, I had some really good training weeks and the idea was to build up to that tournament and peak well there. Now that I’ve just come back, I want to sit with my team and analyse the tournament a bit deeper; how the week went, how the training block before it worked and what we can improve.” The world No. 12 endured a challenging path to the final, beating top seed Shi Yuqi in the opening round before overcoming Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long and former champion Li Shifeng in the later rounds.</p>.<p>He then battled through a gruelling semifinal against Canada’s Victor Lai to book his place in the title clash.For a tournament like the All England, where the world’s best players are stacked across the draw, a deep run usually means pushing the body to the limit and Lakshya admitted the physical toll of the week began to show by the closing stages, particularly after the marathon semifinal of 97 minutes.</p>.<p>“I mean, the last semifinal that I played took some toll on the body, especially when I was cramping during the match. I did everything I could to recover well and come back fresh on the finals day as well. But yeah, the cramping in the semifinals was a little bit too hard to fully recover from the next day,” he said.</p>.<p>“Even during the match and after it, the muscles were under a lot of strain. Quite long matches the whole week, right from day one they were long games. Eventually, the muscles got tired. But I guess it was similar for my opponent as well because he had also played five matches that week.”</p>