Shibuya (Japan), Jul 17: India's Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were knocked out in the Round of 16 of the Japan Open, a BWF Super 750 badminton tournament, here on Thursday.

Sen lost 19-21, 11-21 to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in straight games, while Satwik-Chirag suffered a 22-24, 14-21 loss to the Chinese duo of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.

India's campaign has suffered a setback with these defeats on Thursday, as the prominent players such as HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu have already exited the tournament in the first round. Now the spotlight rests on Anupama Upadhyaya, India's sole remaining hope, who is set to take on China's Wang Zhi Yi in the women’s singles Round of 16 later in the day.

World No. 18 Lakshya, who finished fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics, overcame China’s Wang Zheng Xing 21-11, 21-18 to enter the second, while Satwik and Chirag, defeated South Korea’s Kang Min Hyuk and Ki Dong Ju 21-18, 21-10 in 42 minutes on Wednesday to move into the second round.

On Wednesday, Sindhu went down 21-15, 21-14 to the world No. 14 South Korean shuttler in 38 minutes in the opening round. It was her first defeat to Sim Yu Jin in four meetings.

The loss marked yet another early exit for Sindhu in what has been a challenging 2025 BWF World Tour season. Her best finish this year remains a quarter-final appearance at the India Open in January, which was followed by four first-round exits and two round of 16 finishes.

Earlier in the tournament, Unnati Hooda lost to Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-8, 21-12 in the first round. Men’s doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi went down to South Korea's Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae 21-15, 21-9.

Women’s doubles duo Kavipriya Selvam-Simran Singhi were beaten 21-6, 21-15 by Hong Kong China's Lui Lok Lok-Tsang Hiu Yan. Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda were knocked out of women’s doubles after losing to the Japanese pair of Kokona Ishikawa and Maiko Kawazoe 21-13, 21-7 on Tuesday.

(IANS)

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