Lakshya Sen focusing on achieving peak fitness after premature exit in Japan Open
"Yes, I think so. At this level, you need to be sharp. I've played a few matches over the past couple of months, but this is the standard I want to be playing at week in and week out. So, yeah — this was a valuable experience. It'll definitely help me going forward," Lakshya told the broadcaster on Thursday.Lakshya went down to Naraoka 19-21, 11-21, in straight games. Analysing his performance, Lakshya said that he should have pushed the match to 3 games, but was unable to find the correct length (flight), which resulted in him playing several short shuttles."Yeah, it was a very physical match. I think for both of us, the rallies were really long. The first game was important for me to win, and I had my chances. If I'd taken them, maybe I could've pushed it to a third game — and then, who knows? But credit to him, he played a solid match," Lakshya said."In the second game, I made a lot of easy errors. I couldn't really find my length, ended up playing too many short shots at the net, and got punished for it," he added.Lakshya explained that the match was a difficult one because Naraoka had the habit of not giving up on a single point, which made it difficult for him. He concluded by saying that he was outplayed on the day."You have to earn every point against him — he doesn't give you anything easy. He's a very steady player. You just have to wait for the right chance to attack, because his defence is so solid. He played really well today," he concluded.Lakshya will now travel to China and then prepare for the World Championships in Paris.- EndsMust Watch
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Best hits of a teen
Cricket eventually ended up becoming his thing. Growing up in Melbourne, the city of Brett Lee, James Pattinson, Scott Boland and the likes, he wanted to become a fast bowler. However, soon Vishwa realised spin would be a better option for him, and invariably in the land of Shane Warne, he opted for leg-spin. He made a steady rise up the ranks and even toured India as part of the Australia U19 side, playing a Youth Test against India U19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, in front of his family. India U19 won the first game, but Vishwa impressed with a four-fer and a three-fer in that match. In the lead-up to the 2024 Indian Premier League, Vishwa was also a net bowler for Chennai Super Kings. For someone whose first memory of watching Test cricket was the India-Australia 2011 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, both the MCG and Chepauk remain special. The teenager, who plays for Dandenong Cricket Club in the Victorian Premier Cricket Competition, spends most of the Australian summer in cricket grounds, honing his skills and taking wickets. During the off-season, he frequently visits Chennai for training and upskilling himself. 'I think from 11 or 12, I have been training here. I first went to the Cricket Drome academy, and I worked with Sridharan Sriram, who used to work with the Australian team. Afterwards, I also worked with a few spin coaches like Siva Prakasam,' he shares.
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
From flight to freefall: How TN based Archana Thiagarajan led India to glory
Until the 1960s, scientists believed that diving beyond 38 metres (around 125 feet), could kill a human. The pressure, they thought, would crush the lungs. But in 1952, an Italian diver Raimondo Bucher took a 39-metre-plunge and came back up, proving them wrong. Since then, freedivers have been going deeper. Some use ropes, some fins, some add weights, and one discipline has crossed the 200-metre mark. But the risk is real. Seawater is 840 times denser than air, and as you sink, the pressure builds quickly. The deeper you go, the heavier it gets. And yet, freedivers return for tranquility and slow fall. 'What draws me to freediving, is the calmness and stillness. It's just you and your body,' says Tamil Nadu-based Archana Thiagarajan. 'I usually close my eyes. It's like being in space, weightless, free-falling, neutrally buoyant.' A former squadron leader in the Indian Air Force, Archana, never expected to find a space in this world. But earlier this year, she made history. At the 34th AIDA Freediving World Championship in Wakayama, Japan (held from 28 June to 2 July, 2025), Archana became the first Indian woman to represent the country. In her debut appearance, she set four new national records across all pool disciplines (DYNB: 137m; DYN: 125m; DNF: 94m; STA: 4:22 Sec), bringing her total to ten (all in pool disciplines). A sabbatical in Indonesia in April 2024 with her husband (also ex-IAF), had sparked a casual interest in freediving after initially considering scuba. They had both retired from the IAF on 5 January, 2024 and planned a year of travel. Now, that spark has taken her to the world stage.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Golf-No Claret Jug, but redemption for McIlroy at Portrush
* HT Image McIlroy enjoys Portrush redemption * Finishes seven shots behind champion Scheffler * Awesome week, says five-times major winner By Martyn Herman PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland, July 20 (Reuters) - It was not quite the glorious homecoming Rory McIlroy had dared to dream of on his return to Royal Portrush but it felt like redemption for Northern Ireland's favourite sporting son after the heartbreak of six years ago. Five-times major champion McIlroy produced a few magical moments over four days for the thousands who descended on the Antrim coast hoping to roar him to British Open glory. In the end the Northern Irishman fell short, however, finishing tied seventh, seven strokes behind a supreme champion in Scottie Scheffler. After the gloom of missing the cut in 2019 when the Open returned to the land of his birth for the first time since 1951, though, it felt like a celebration for the 36-year-old who arrived at the course wearing his Masters green jacket. "I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception," said McIlroy, who briefly threatened to make a charge on Sunday before a double-bogey on the 10th ended his hopes. "It's been an awesome week," he said. "I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug, and that's because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us." McIlroy remains the world number two and is hungry for more majors after completing his career Grand Slam by winning this year's Masters to end an 11-year major drought. COURSE RECORD It will be a few years before golf's oldest major returns to Royal Portrush, though, where McIlroy shot a course record 61 as a teenager. "I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd," he said. "Hopefully, I'll have one or two Opens left here, if the R&A decide to keep coming back, probably one while I'm still competitive and another one while I'm more gray than I already am. "I think Portrush has quickly turned into one of the best two or three venues that The Open goes to," McIlroy added. "Talk to every player this week, they won't say one bad thing about the golf course." McIlroy, firing again after a post-Augusta slump, concedes that world number one Scheffler has moved to a different level. "He is the bar that we're all trying to get to," he said. "In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run like the one that Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive." McIlroy said he would scale back slightly after the Open to focus on this year's Ryder Cup in New York. "I don't want to play too much leading up to that because I want to be fresh." he said. "I'll reflect on what's been already a good year and start to get myself ready for that run-up." (Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
