India Open 2025: Lakshya, Prannoy among favourites to make first round exit; Anupama beats Rakshitha to enter round 2

India Open 2025: Lakshya, Prannoy among favourites to make first round exit; Anupama beats Rakshitha to enter round 2

Indian hopes of a home champion suffered a massive blow with all the top favourites exiting in the first round of the India Open Super 750 here on Wednesday even as Anupama Upadhyaya took the honours in an all-Indian battle defeating fellow trainee at the Pullela Gopichand Academy Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj 21-17, 21-18 in 43 minutes to advance in the tournament.

While Priyanshu Rajawat, HS Prannoy and Malvika Bansod went down fighting in three games each in their respective matches on a bleak day for Indian fans, Lakshya Sen failed to put up a semblance of a fight, going down tamely to Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Yi Lin in straight games 21-15, 21-10.

The results left PV Sindhu and Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy as the country’s best hopes to end the title drought at the premier event in the Indian badminton calendar.

Malvika came the closest to causing an upset against World No. 4 Han Yue of China, winning the first game and pushing Yue hard in the second before succumbing to the much superior and experienced opponent 20-22, 21-16, 21-11 in a tiring 66-minute contest.

With both players preferring a touch-and-retrieve game instead of employing raw power, Malvika — who had gone down in straight games to Yue last week in Malaysia – relied on her soft drops and accurate angles to force the higher-ranked Chinese into errors, saving two match points to go from 18-20 to 22-20 in the opening game.

Despite slow starts that saw her trail 1-7 and 7-14 in the second game, Malvika fought back to go 16-15 ahead before Yue took charge of the game, doing the same in the decider to take the match.

Rajawat, meanwhile, displayed control of his strokes and the game and looked to be going the distance against 2023 World Championships silver medallist Kodai Naraoka but could simply not keep pace with the Japanese to go down 21-16, 22-20, 21-13 in 82 minutes, one of the longest matches of the competition so far.

Rajawat even saved a match point in the second game to force a decider but Naraoka simply returned everything the Indian threw at him and used his experience to shut the doors on the Indian youngster.

Prannoy, still recovering from the effects of Chikungunya he suffered last year, was unable to build on his early momentum, falling short against Su Li Yang 16-21, 21-18, 21-12.

On the positive side, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto beat compatriots Kavya Gupta and Radhika Sharma 21-11, 21-12 while the Panda sisters, Rutaparna and Swetaparna, got the better of the Thai combination of Phattarin Aiamvareesrisakul and Sarisa Janpeng 7-21, 21-19, 21-14. In the mixed doubles, Ashith Surya and Amruta Pramuthesh beat Tarun Kona and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-14, 21-15.