China Open 2023: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen make first round exits

Indian badminton players HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men’s singles event of the China Open Super 1000 badminton tournament

World Championship bronze medallist HS Prannoy made a shock opening-round exit after going down in three games to Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong on Tuesday.

In the opening round in Changzhou, World No. 22 Tze Yong showed no fear as he rallied to a 21-12, 13-21, 21-18 upset over world No. 6 H.S. Prannoy of India Prannoy has been in fiery form recently, as he had stunned world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, in the quarter-finals of the World Championships in Copenhagen last month.

Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen also crashed out of the tournament in the first round after losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark in three games -- 21-23 21-16 9-21 -- in one hour and 18 minutes.

Priyanshu Rajawat then went down 13-21 24-26 to Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito. With that, the Indian challenge ended in the men's singles.

Meanwhile Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, the only Indian pair in the China Open women’s doubles event, lost 21-18, 21-11 to China’s top-seeded pair of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallists.

India’s men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila fought hard before losing 23-21, 21-19 to the Japanese pair of Keiichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi.

There is no Indian in the women's singles after star shuttler PV Sindhu pulled out in a last-minute decision to focus on the upcoming Asian Games.