We noticed Lakshya is very good at putting a lot of pressure to (bring) Garret in front. So we wanted to, you know, keep him away from the front.

Paula Lynn | Garret Tan's coachAt the Pan Am Championships earlier in the year, he reached the men's singles quarter-finals, beating Brazil's Jonathan Matias before losing to Canada's Brian Yang. Ripples of his growing talent were also seen during the US Open, Taipei Open and Saipan International, where he was the fifth seed.

Accompanied to New Delhi by coach Paula Lynn, who he considers an elder sister, and his mother, who acts as his manager, what makes him special is his curiosity and being 'coachable.' USA's Garret Tan celebrates after winning his men's singles Round of 32 match against India's Lakshya Sen at the BWF World Championship 2026 at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

(ANI Photo)" Off the top of my head, it's that a player should be coachable," said Lynn on what makes Tan a good player. " You should be coachable because different coaches can give different opinions and even advice.

But I think you need to be coachable as a player and take what are the positive things that you could add to your game and then move forward," she explained. Before the big match against Lakshya, the coach and Tan got together to discuss strategy, how to deal with the drift and the 'uncontrollable' in the form of a partisan crowd.

A day later, Tan delivered on those discussions. With Sen strong with smashes and when approaching the front, the American took that away with pushes to the back line and cleverly paced tosses, targeting the foreh and in the process.

USA's Garret Tan being attended by a physio after an injury during a men's singles round of 32 badminton match against India's Lakshya Sen at the BWF World Championships, at IGI Stadium, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo) Tan acknowledged that the drift played a role as he adopted that strategy.

During the match, the coach and Lam continued to remind him to play smartly and use the two-paced court to his advantage." We noticed Lakshya is very good at putting a lot of pressure to (bring) Garret in front.

So we wanted to, you know, keep him away from the front. In the first and second set, Lakshya half-smashed and then he was very fast in coming forward.

So we kind of slowed down the pace," explained Lynn." You can see he's tall, jumps really high, very powerful.

But Lakshya is very smart. He is very smart in dealing with Garret's way of play because he didn't put a lot of pressure on the big smashes.

So, Garret started to play a lot of angle smashes and half smashes," she continued. If Lakshya Sen's shot-making couldn't deter Tan, an accidental bump to the head wasn't enough either.

In the third set, as the 18-year-old lunged to pick up a drop shot, he slid forward and aggravated an injury from a previous tournament. United States' Garret Tan celebrates after defeating India's Lakshya Sen at the Badminton World Championships in New Delhi, India, Wednesday.

(AP Photo) With the tournament doctor coming to his aid, Tan, feeling dizzy, took a breather with the points getting tight. His team urged him to reset.

Shortly after, he picked up the biggest win of his career. A couple of weeks ago, Tan was convinced that he wouldn't go far in the tournament.

With tickets booked for Friday, he crossed his fingers to keep his debut stint at the World Championships going. After the shock and awe on Wednesday, he has the daunting task of facing second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

Vikram Rai is a veteran in the aerospace sector who joined GE Aerospace in 2012. He has held several important positions within the company over the years, incl...