May 29, 2025: India faced a mixed day at the Singapore Badminton Open 2025, as top stars PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy exited in the second round, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty kept the nation’s hopes alive with a gritty comeback win.
Former world champion Sindhu, seeded 17th, showed glimpses of her trademark fight but was eventually outplayed by Olympic gold medallist Chen Yufei of China. The intense clash ended 21-9, 18-21, 21-16 in Chen’s favor after 65 minutes of play. This marks Sindhu’s seventh defeat in 13 encounters with the world No. 5 Chinese star.
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On the men’s side, HS Prannoy suffered a straight-game loss to France’s Christo Popov, going down 21-16, 21-14. Prannoy, ranked 34th, struggled to keep pace against the world No. 23 shuttler.
In brighter news, India’s premier men’s doubles duo Satwik and Chirag made a winning return to the court after a two-month injury layoff. Despite losing the first game, the 27th-ranked pair roared back to defeat Indonesia’s Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing across other categories. In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were overpowered by China’s Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian, losing 21-8, 21-10. In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde bowed out after a 21-10, 21-16 defeat to Hong Kong China’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet.
As the tournament progresses, Satwik and Chirag remain India’s last standing contenders in Singapore.