Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu has crashed out of the Japan Open after losing in the first round on Wednesday. However, Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the second round with comfortable victories.
Sindhu (30), a former world champion, went down 15-21, 14-21 to Korea's Sim Yu Jin in the Super 750 tournament. This was her fifth first-round exit in 2025. After a slow start, Sindhu, who appeared out of sorts and made too many errors while struggling with judgement of length, fight well in the first game, but Sim proved too good for her in the end.
In the second game, Sindhu fell behind 1-6. Though she managed to level the score at 11-11, the Korean dominated the proceedings after that and won the match in straight games.
In men’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag, currently ranked 15th in the world, defeated the Korean duo of Kang Min Hyuk and Kim Dong Ju 21-18, 21-10 in just 42 minutes. The former World No. 1 pair took some time to get into rhythm with the Koreans matching them early in the first game. But once the Indians got into the flow, they were unstoppable and dominated the second game with clinical precision.
World No. 18 Lakshya, who has struggled with his form this season, as evident by a string of first-round exits, appeared sharp as he got the better of China's Wang Zheng Xing 21-11, 21-18. He was in complete control in the opening game, racing to an 11-2 lead before winning it quite easily.
While Xing played better in the second game, Lakshya rode on his early momentum to stay ahead and seal the match in straight games. He will next face seventh seed and local favourite Kodai Naraoka in the round of 16.
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