Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag exit Japan Open 2025 in pre-quarterfinals

TOKYO: Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty crashed out of the ongoing Japan Open 2025 badminton tournament after losing their pre-quarterfinal encounters on Thursday. Anupama Upadhyaya’s run in the women’s singles also ended in the round of 16, as per Olympics.com.

Paris 2024 Olympic semifinalist Lakshya Sen, 18th in the badminton rankings, lost 21-19, 21-11 to local favourite and world No. 8 Kodai Naraoka. The Indian badminton player pushed Naraoka in the opening game but failed to put up much resistance in the second as the contest lasted just under an hour. This was Lakshya’s fifth loss to Naraoka in seven meetings.

Meanwhile, Satwik and Chirag fell to the People’s Republic of China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, the Paris 2024 men’s doubles silver medallist, by a 24-22, 21-14 scoreline. A fiercely contested opening game went right down to the wire before the Indian pair let it slip against the fifth-seeded Chinese team. The second game, by comparison, was a lot more one-sided in favour of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang.

World No. 15 Satwik-Chirag, returning to the court for the first time since last month’s Indonesia Open, like Lakshya, had defeated the Republic of Korea’s Kang Min-hyuk and Kim Dong Ju in the opening round. This was the Indian pair’s fourth straight loss to the Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang pairing.

Anupama Upadhyaya, India’s last hope in the BWF Super 750 badminton tournament, tried to put up a fight against world No. 2 Chinese shuttler Wang Zhiyi, the reigning Asian champion, but was eventually outclassed 13-21, 21-11, 21-12.

None of the other Indian players in action at the Japan Open, including double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, had managed to make it past the opening round. Indian shuttlers will be next seen in action at the big-ticket China Open Super 1000, which starts next Tuesday. (ANI)