Lakshya Sen set to headline 85th Senior National Badminton Championships

Star shuttler Lakshya Sen is set to feature in the upcoming Senior National Badminton Championship to be held in Guwahati from December 20.

Assam Badminton Association is set to host the 85th Senior National Badminton Championships along with the 76th Inter-State and Inter-Zonal team competitions.

The secretary of the Assam Badminton Association, Omar Rashid today informed the media that around 500 players from 39 teams will take part in the forthcoming competitions. Both the meets will be held, in two venues-Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phukan Indoor Stadium and Kanaklata Indoor Stadium respectively.

With the international badminton season getting over with the BWF Tour finals, Lakshya can use the tournament for the preparation for Malaysia Open 2024 which serves as the first tournament in 2024 for Paris Olympic qualification.

Along with Lakshay, Kiran George, and Kartikey Gulshan are seeded second and third in men's singles. The likes of B Sai Praneeth, S Sankar Muthuswamy, and Sameer Verma will enter the tournament unseeded.

In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap and Ashmita Chahila will be the first and second seeds while Anupama Upadhayay will be the fourth seed. Malvika Bansod will enter the main draw unseeded while Unnati Hooda will be the 12th seed.

Dhruv Kapila and Arjun MR will be the top seeds in men's doubles while R Arubala and Varshini VS will be the top seed in women's doubles. In mixed doubles, N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor will be the top seed.

The Badminton Association of India recently announced that the tournament carries a total prize money of Rs 50 lakh (10 lakh for the Team Championship and Rs 40 Lakh for the open category). Both men and women singles champions will collect a purse of Rs 3.25 lakh each.