Lakshya Sen wins a lot of matches despite playing – excruciatingly – like Lakshya Sen.

He will build himself an 18-10 lead, then get complacent and hope points will flow seamlessly – if not hit the snooze button entirely. He will then find himself at an unsavoury 18-17 situation, then jolt himself awake and race to the finish, leaving those watching and wondering what the mid-game funk was all about.

The Indian World No.14 ended his title drought of this season, winning the Hylo Open in Germany on Sunday when he defeated Jonatan Christie 21-17, 21-10. That said mid-set snooze came in the opener. However Jojo Christie is in such poor form that as soon as he got to 17-18, he panicked and snatched at what should have been net-kills and sprayed the shuttle wide and long trying to elude Sen’s defence.

On either side of that regulation buffering that hits Sen routinely, he had an array of wonderful strokes. The hop-smash that travels like a bullet.…