New Delhi: Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were eliminated in the second round of the Japan Super 750 badminton tournament on Thursday, July 17. Lakshya faced home favourite Kodai Naraoka and failed to put up a fight, suffering a 21-19, 21-11 loss in the second round of the tournament.
He is India’s highest-ranked men’s singles player and there were high hopes from him to give a decent performance in the tournament, after he defeated China’s Wang Zheng Xing comfortably in the first round.
But once he lost the first game by 21-19 in the second round, it looked over for him. His Chinese opponent dominated the second game as well and he failed to put up a fight again. He only managed to score only 11 points in response to Naraoka’s 21 and was knocked out from the tournament.
Satwik-Chirag eliminated
The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were also eliminated in the second round of the Japan Open 2025. They lost against the fifth-seeded Chinese duo of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang by 22-24, 14-21.
The Indian duo got off to a slow start but performed better as the match progressed. Satwik-Chirag did well to take an 18-14 lead, but the Chinese pair made a stunning comeback and took the first game into sudden death.
The duo was unable to compete in the second game and lost by 14-21. They struggled with their smashes and defence to concede their fourth consecutive defeat to Wei Ken and Chang.
Earlier in the tournament, PV Sindhu also lost 15-21, 14-21 against South Korea’s Sim Yu Jin in the first round. This was the seventh consecutive occasion that Sindhu failed to qualify for the second round in the badminton tournament.