‘Couldn’t play my game’: Lakshya Sen after losing first round of Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2025

NEW DELHI: Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen shared his views after losing the opening round of the ongoing Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2025 at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall on Wednesday.

Paris 2024 Olympics semi-finalist Lakshya Sen lost the men’s singles event after a 21-15, 21-10 loss against Lin Chun-yi of Chinese Taipei in New Delhi.

Lakshya Sen, 12th in the badminton rankings for men’s singles, lost to world No. 15 Lin Chun-yi in just 37 minutes. Sen was also knocked out of the Malaysia Open last week by another Chinese Taipei shuttler – Chi Yu-jen.

After his loss in the round-1 match, Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen said, “I couldn’t really play my game. Overall, the movements were a bit slow today and not getting under the shuttle to connect with but credit to him, he (Chun-Yi Lin) played a really good game…I was prepared for a really good match but today was the day I couldn’t find my grip on the court…”

#WATCH | Indian Open 2025 | Delhi: After his loss in the round-1 match today, Indian Badminton player Lakshya Sen says, “I couldn’t really play my game. Overall, the movements were a bit slow today and not getting under the shuttle to connect with but credit to him, he (Chun-Yi… pic.twitter.com/7YbgB8njbE

— ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2025

World No. 26 H S Prannoy made a positive start in his match but ended up losing 16-21, 21-18, 21-12 to world No. 33 Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.

Prannoy won the first game comfortably but Li Yang raised the bar in the next two to win the match and advanced to the next round of the BWF Super 750 tournament.

This was Prannoy’s second loss in as many matches against Su Li Yang, having previously come up short at the All-England Open last year.

Seventh-seeded women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda and the mixed doubles combination of Ashith Surya and Amruta Pramuthesh.

Ashwini and Tanisha defeated compatriots Kavya Gupta and Radhika Sharma 21-11, 21-12 while the Panda sisters got the better of the young Thai combination of Phattarin Aiamvareesrisakul and Sarisa Janpeng 7-21, 21-19, 21-14. Ashith and Amruta then teamed up to beat K Tarun and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-14, 21-15 to advance to the mixed doubles second round.

#WATCH | India Open 2025 | Delhi: After winning today’s match, Indian Badminton players Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto speak to the media.

Ashwini Ponnappa says, “…We don’t have a lot of players. But we do have a few players…So, I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad but it… pic.twitter.com/mbLUA733Pl

— ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2025

After winning the match, Indian badminton players Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto spoke to the media.

“We don’t have a lot of players. But we do have a few players. So, I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad but it would be good to have more pairs and not just 1-2 pairs in each event. Looking forward to playing well and it’s important for us to take one match at a time. Currently, our aim is to just play well and give our best when we enter the court”, Ashwini Ponnappa told the reporters.

“It was our first match. I think it was important for both of us to understand the court and the conditions here because we have a really good match coming up tomorrow. So, it was very important for both of us to try everything today and understand what is favourable for us and what’s not…We really had fun”, Tanisha Crasto said.

Anupama Upadhyaya won the battle between two rising women’s singles players while Malvika Bansod and Priyanshu Rajawat put their best foot forward by putting their much higher ranked opponents to the sword but were unfortunate to end on the wrong side of the score-line in the opening round of the competition.

Malvika saved two game points in the opening game and fought back from 7-14 to 16-16 in the second against women’s singles third seed Han Yue of China before going down 20-22, 21-16, 21-11 in an hour and six minutes.

Malvika, who had gone down in straight game against Han last week in Malaysia, started strong in the opening game and though the Chinese took control of the game in the later stage, kept her nerves and forced errors to save two game points and pocket the first game. It looked like she could do an encore in the second after winning eight the nine points from 7-14 but a couple of errors derailed her effort and the experienced Han tightened the noose in the decider.

After losing today’s match, Indian Badminton player Malvika Bansod told reporters, “I played against her last week at Malaysia Open pre-quarters and lost 18-21, 11-21. So, in less than a week, I have made quite some progress. It’s difficult to gain that much of a margin against the current world number 4 in less than a week. So, I think I have done pretty well. But a few more points needed to be worked on. I am overall happy with the performance and I would like to thank the wonderful crowd that was there today. It was amazing to play on home soil and all the best to all the youngsters who were there.” (ANI)