On Tuesday in Changzhou, India's men's singles stars HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen saw their China Open 2023 runs end abruptly. Prannoy, ranked sixth globally, was ousted in the first round of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 by Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong, falling 21-12, 13-21, 21-18. In another opening match, Lakshya Sen was unable to overcome Denmark's world No. 10, Anders Antonsen, losing 23-21, 16-21, 21-9.
Prannoy struggled to find his rhythm early on, allowing Ng Tze Yong to take the first game comfortably. Despite this, the 31-year-old World Championship bronze medalist showed great resilience, dominating the second game to force a third. While the final game began as a tight battle between the two, Prannoy eventually ran out of steam, losing the match after 66 minutes.
Lakshya Sen's day began with an intense first-game struggle against the world championship bronze medalist Anders Antonsen. After narrowly losing the opener, the young Indian surged back to win the second game. However, Sen couldn't maintain that momentum in the final set, eventually exiting the tournament after a grueling 78-minute match at the Xincheng Gymnasium within the Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre.
Elsewhere, Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a defeat at the hands of Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, with scores of 21-13, 26-24. In the women's doubles, India's sole representatives, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, were beaten 21-18, 21-11 by the top-seeded Chinese pair, Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, who are Tokyo Olympic silver medalists.
The men's doubles team of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila put up a brave fight in the first round but ultimately lost 23-21, 21-19 to Japan's Keiichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi. Meanwhile, fans look forward to Wednesday, when the pairs of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (men's doubles) and Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy (mixed doubles) start their matches.
Notably, PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and former world number one Kidambi Srikanth both pulled out of the tournament. Both had been eliminated in the opening round of the BWF World Championships just a week prior. Now, after being added to the roster, Sindhu and Srikanth will have extra time to focus their preparation on the 2018 Hangzhou Asian Games.