Mumbai, Nov. 26 -- Lakshya Sen looked straight into the camera. Then he closed his eyes and put his fingers in his ears. That was a moment of calm, his moment of peace. His moment of celebration. Towards the end of a long, trophyless season, Sen had finally won a piece of silverware when he triumphed at the Australian Open, a World Tour Super 500 event on Sunday. Finally, in a year where he has struggled physically and mentally, the player from Almora, Uttarakhand had conquered some of those demons. "There were a lot of things (I had to deal with) throughout the year," he said during a media roundtable. "Especially when I was not doing well, there were a lot of doubts that were in my mind. I think for me, it was important to just block everything and believe in myself. Just trust yourself that you are doing the right thing." The 2025 season started off with two consecutive first round losses. Sen, a former world No.6, then picked up a little when he reached the quarter-final of the prestigious All England Championships in March. But starting from April, he managed to win just one match in six tournaments. "They weren't major injuries, but there were a few niggles. I had a back issue and I was getting back spams because of the high match-intensity or loads on the back," he explained. "I needed a few good strength sessions to overcome that, and made a few changes in the training with smart load management that helped me through that two-three month period. But again, it took me some time to get to know what's the reason for (the injury)." He said that he had to spend some time in hospital as well, and had even visited the Athlete Performance Centre in Salzburg, Austria to find a solution. "Clinically, there was nothing major. But it was a lot to do with back strengthening and core strengthening. And that took me some time to get really strong," he said. Dealing with the physical aspect was one thing. Sen had also been struggling from a mental standpoint as well, especially after he finished a heartbreaking fourth at the Paris Olympics last year. "Post the Olympics, it was a little bit hard for me to find motivation to train really hard and play a few tournaments," Sen said. "I also took a break for some time after last year and the results were also not great. I was still competing in a few tournaments but I think if I look back now, I was not really 100% there. And at the start of this season, I was dealing with a lot of injuries and a few bad results." The motivation started to come back after he began working with mental trainer Mon Brockman. Through that association, he went back to the absolute basic element of sport. "The main aim was to just go out there and enjoy playing badminton again, and not think about the results," said Sen. "Post-Paris, there was a time where I was not doing so well. There were a lot of first round exits as well. A lot of the things I was dealing with mentally, I had to just let all those thoughts go and just enjoy playing the sport again." Fit again, Sen has been enjoying all aspects of the game. He's also added another element - patience. "If it's going to take time to start winning again, it will take time," he said. "It's not that I'm trying to hurry to win the next tournament in the next week. (It's important to know that) even though the results are not coming, you are on the right track. Eventually it will happen, you don't have to hurry. "Just block all the noise and focus on doing the right thing now." He blocked a lot of noise and trusted the process many times last week. In the semi-final against Chou Tien Chen, Sen saved three match points to enter the final. And in the summit clash, he stormed to a 38-minute 21-15, 21-11 win over Japan's Yushi Tanaka. With the win, Sen has now gone back up to the world No.11 spot and is making his way back into the top 10. That is a goal for a later day. More important for now, was the win itself....