Kevin Cordon had created quite a stir three years ago in Tokyo. Hailing from Guatemala, a country not known for its badminton, the world No.41 had stunned the badminton world to reach the bronze medal playoff with some inspired play.

The 37-year-old gave a good account of himself at the Paris Olympics too. Though he was hammered 8-21 in the opener, Cordon led with a healthy gap throughout the second game and was ready to level the contest as he held four game points at 20-16.

But at the other end, a calm and resolute Lakshya Sen never lost belief in his abilities as he saved all game points and won six points on the trot to close out the game 22-20 and win the Group L opener in 42 minutes.

This was exactly the kind of situation Sen had been training for the last couple of months when he took a number of steps to prepare for the Olympics. He shifted base to the coastal city of Marseille in France, took a support team of 10 members and also trained with the Popov brothers – Christo and Toma Jr – at their academy, both of whom are also participating in Paris.

But most importantly, he reunited with his old coach, South Korean Yoo Yong Sung, after a gap of almost one-and-a-half years.

“The intensity which Yoo brings to the court, especially when he is feeding shuttles from the other side, really keeps you ready. In multi-shuttle sessions he amps up the intensity and speed of the game,” says Sen, who earned his second win in as many meetings against Cordon on Saturday.

“When I spar with him, he uses a lot of flat drives, the shuttle keeps coming back very quickly despite me hitting smashes. My target is to finish them. These methods have really helped me in the last month or so.”

Sen, who next faces Belgian Julien Carraggi on Monday, had particularly discussed with his team to get Yoo on board because of his experience at the Olympics, having won two men’s doubles silver medals in 2000 and 2004 in addition to the Korean’s tactical analysis of Sen’s rivals. Yoo trained Sen in 2022 before the two split and the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion decided to train with Anup Sridhar. Sen split with Anup too late last year.

“We focused a lot on overall improvement in my game for the last seven weeks where I worked on areas such as converting my defence into attack. We worked a lot on the areas where I was not strong,” said Sen, who at 22 is making his Olympic debut.

“We did multiple sessions on the net game and defence, especially keeping in focus the closing stages of the match where I need to be sharp and aggressive and not give away points.”

Later in the day, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also won their men’s doubles Group C opener, overcoming Frenchmen Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena. The third seeds won 21-17, 21-14 to silence the loud partisan crowd backing the local shuttlers, earning their third win in as many meetings against the world No.40.

They next face Germans Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel on Monday.