New Delhi: Indian badminton star Lakshya Sen suffered his 10th first-round exit of the year on Wednesday after losing in the opening round of the BWF Arctic Open 2025. Sen, who is India’s most celebrated men’s badminton player, has been going through a tough phase in the ongoing year going down in his first-round matches.
Paris Olympics semifinalist Sen fell 21-15, 21-17 in a clash which lasted for 57 minutes against world number 11 and fifth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan. Lakshya struggled from the start, trailing 11-6 at the first-game interval and failing to mount a serious challenge.
The second game became a bit closer at 11-10 but Naraoka shifted gears after the break, limiting Lakshya to seven more points. This marked Sen’s sixth defeat in eight matches against Naraoka. The only silver lining for the shuttler in this year has been the Hong Kong Open where he reached the final in the last month.
Mannepalli keeps Indian hopes alive
Meanwhile, Tharun Mannepalli kept alive the country’s men’s singles hopes at the Arctic Open 2025, staging a thrilling comeback to upset world number 14 Toma Junior Popov of France. 46th ranked Mannepalli overcame a first game loss to beat Popov 11-21, 21-11, 22-20 in a game which lasted for one hour and eight minute contest. He saved four match points in the decider to pull off a remarkable win in the Super 500 event. He will take on world No. 18 Koki Watanabe of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
Other Indian players in the event also faced early exits. Former world number one Kidambi Srikanth conceded a walkover to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke while Kiran George retired in his second game after trailing 1-4 after conceding the opener 10-21 to Watanabe. Sankar Subramanian went down 21-17, 21-11 to France’s Christo Popov in 44 minutes, and Ayush Shetty lost 21-15, 21-16 against top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in 50 minutes.
(With PTI inputs)