New Delhi, January 16 Former champion PV Sindhu has regained her old aggressive image while emerging Indian player Kiran George won in straight games despite pressure. Apart from this, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made a comeback after trailing by one game and made it to the quarter-finals of the ongoing Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2025 at KD Jadhav Indoor Hall on Thursday.
Playing her second tournament since the Paris Olympics, Sindhu defeated Japan’s Manami Suiju 21-15, 21-13 in straight games, while Kiran defeated France’s Alex Lanier 22-20, 21-13 in the second round of men’s singles.
Later, 2022 champions Satwik and Chirag had to regroup after losing the first game and it was this solidarity that helped the duo beat Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi/Hiroki Okamura 20-22, 21-14, 21-16.
Among other top players, last edition’s runners-up Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong had to save a match point in the decider against Toma Junior Popov. However, he converted the one hour and 16 minute struggle into a 14-21, 21-18, 22-20 win to enter the quarterfinals.
While that match between Lee Cheuk Yiu and Toma Junior Popov kept badminton fans on the edge of their seats, Sindhu and Kiran gave them enough reasons to celebrate.
After being on the side-lines for over six months, Sindhu looked rusty in her opening match against Chinese Taipei’s Shuo Yun Sung in the opening round. But the former world champion played an aggressive game against Suiju today, hitting winners from both sides of the court.
After some openers, Sindhu took a 13-6 lead in the opening game. Though Suiju reduced the gap to 14-13, the Indian star always looked in control and she again made a big difference. Sindhu dominated the second game, hitting cross court winners at will.
After the match, Sindhu said, “After the break, what I felt best about my game today was my movement and my attacks were working well. Going forward, I have to be ready for anything, as the matches will get tougher. Now in the next round, Sindhu will face fourth seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia, who defeated another Japanese player Natsuki Nadera 21-12, 24-22 in another second round match.
Earlier, Kiran saved six game points against Lanier in the opening game of the second round match. 24-year-old Kiran, who entered the competition at the last moment from the reserve list, was unable to find rhythm due to the accurate attack of the French player in the opening game.
Lanier took a 20-14 lead in the first game, but Kiran made a brilliant comeback and won eight consecutive points to win the game 22-20. At that time, he kept the shuttle in play for so long that his opponent got a chance to make a mistake. And as the Indian player started getting closer, the French player started making mistakes.
After the win, Kiran said, “At 14-20, I was playing one point at a time. Not thinking about the lead or whether I was trailing or not. I was playing for one point at a time. I think that helped me win the game.”
He will now face China’s Hong Yang Weng, who defeated Malaysia’s Jun Hao Leong 21-18, 21-12 in the second round.
It looked like Satwik and Chirag would also reach the 8th round in straight games. At one point they took a lead of 18-14 and got a game point at 20-19, but could not capitalize on it and lost the first game. But the setback did not prove to be costly as they quickly gained control of the game in the second game and then maintained the lead to win in one hour and 11 minutes.
It was not a good day for the other Indian contenders, with the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda/Shwetaparna Panda and the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha and Asith Surya/Amrita Pramuthesh bowing out in the second round.
Dhruv and Tanisha put up a strong performance against eighth seeds Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito of Japan but lost with a score-line of 21-18, 21-17. Later, Tanisha and Ashwini also had a mixed day as they lost to Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto of Japan 9-21, 21-23.
