Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag to shoulder India's challenge in India Open 2025

New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): Host India will field its largest-ever contingent in the 3rd edition of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open BWF World Tour Super 750, from January 14-19, 2025. With top stars like Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen, An Se Young, and world No. 1 Shi Yuqi leading the field, this edition promises a thrilling display of skill and precision. It will also be a melting pot of excellence and fandom, as the tournament celebrates its third year, bringing together the best players and passionate fans in a true badminton spectacle.
This Super 750 event has been a flag-ship competition organized by the Badminton Association of India. The tournament, which was elevated as a Super 750 in 2023 is part of the BWF World Tour, offering participants a prize pool of USD 950,000 and 11,000 points for the champions and will be played at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall, Indira Gandhi Stadium.
This edition of the BWF World Tour Super 750 event will see host India getting 21 entries - Men's singles (3), Women's singles (4), Men's Doubles (2), Women's Doubles (8) and Mixed Doubles (4).
"The 2025 Yonex-Sunrise India Open is a clear indication of how Indian players are steadily carving out their place among the best in global badminton. With so many Indian players competing in a Super 750 event, it's a remarkable sign of the growth and rise of Indian badminton on the world stage. This is just the beginning--2025 promises to be a year where more names will feature alongside the established names, while fresh faces will emerge and shine bringing glory and pride to India. The competition at the IG Stadium will be a testament to the rising calibre of Indian talents," said Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary, of the Badminton Association of India as quoted by a BAI Media press release.
In the last two Super 750 editions, India had a total of 14 entries each with Asian Games men's doubles gold medallists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy reaching the men's doubles final and Asian Games bronze medallist HS Prannoy making it to the men's singles last four stages in 2024.
Apart from Chirag-Satwik and Prannoy, India will be looking at 2022 men's singles champion Lakshya Sen, and two-time Olympic medallist and former world women's singles champion PV Sindhu to challenge for the prestigious title.
The quality of competition can be gauged from the fact that only two players from the top-20 ranked men's singles players will be missing in action in New Delhi while the women's singles draw will have 14 of the top-20 players competing.
With many top players in doubles categories announcing retirement after the Paris Olympics or changing partners, the paired events are expected to come up with a few surprise results but the focus of Indian fans will expectedly be on the performance of Chirag and Satwik, as the latter is coming back after an injury lay-off and hasn't played much after the Olympics.
The men's doubles line-up is being led by China's Paris Olympics silver medal-winning combination of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang along with Paris bronze medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, Danish combination of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen and Indonesia's Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto also in action.
List of Indian Players:
Men's Singles - Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajawat
Women's Singles -- PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod, Anupama Upadhyaya, Aakarshi Kashyap
Men's Doubles -- Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, K Sai Pratheek/Pruthvi K Roy
Women's Doubles -- Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda, Mansa Rawat/Gayatri Rawat, Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautam, Sakshi Gahlawat/Apoorva Gahlawat, Sania Sikkandar/Rashmi Ganesh, Mrunmayee Deshpande/Prerana Alvekar
Mixed Doubles -- Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto, K Sathish Kumar/Aadya Variyath, Rohan Kapoor/G Ruthvika Shivani, Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh. (ANI)