Indian singles players continued to struggle in India Open 2025, and a few more lost their opening round matches on Wednesday. After Aakarshi Kashyap lost her match to Thai girl Chochuwong 0-2, Santhosh Ramaraj was beaten by Anupama Upadhyaya 0-2, and Malvika Bansod perished to Chinese Han Yue 1-2, it was curtains for Priyanshu Rajawat and HS Prannoy as well.
HS Prannoy & Priyanshu Rajawat Gone
The World No. 34 Rajawat put up a brave fight against 7th ranked Japanese Kodai Naraoka, but succumbed 16-21, 22-20, 13-21 eventually. Despite starting the match and the first game slowly, Priyanshu Rajawat almost caught up with his opponent at 16-18, but couldn’t close it there. Come the second, it was a much-improved show from the Indian, as after trailing 6-10, he went on to take a lead.
But then, by the time third game came, the youngster had run out of steam. He was never in game as Naraoka took a healthy lead right at the start. In fact, at one stage the score read 2-7 in favour of the Japanese. Meanwhile, this is his second successive failure in 2025, as at the Malaysia Open, Rajawat had lost in the first round vs Chinese Li Shi Feng.
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Prannoy, who is looking to make a mark in the BWF circuit after a bad bout of ‘chikungunya’, was beaten by little-known Su LY. The Indian went down 21-16, 18-21. 12-21. His fitness didn’t really seem like an issue, but then, lack of match fitness did look like an issue. At the Malaysia Open last week, HS Prannoy had fallen to Li Shi Feng of China, in the round of 16.
Two Indians — Kiran George and PV Sindhu have made it to the second round though. The former will play Frenchman Alex Lanier and Sindhu will be up against World No. 46 Japanese M Suizu on Thursday.
