New Delhi: Star shuttlers Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu will headline host India’s largest-ever contingent of 21 players at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, starting here from January 14.
With top stars like Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen, An Se Young, and world No. 1 Shi Yuqi leading the field, top-tier action is expected at the Indira Gandhi Stadium.
Axelsen, a 2023 finalist, had withdrawn from the last edition after falling sick while playing in the Malaysia Open.
A total of 21 Indian players, including three men’s singles, four women’s singles, two men’s doubles, eight women’s doubles, and four mixed doubles pairs, will compete in the USD 950,000 BWF World Tour event, which offers 11,000 ranking points for the champions.
“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,” Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary, Badminton Association of India, said in a release.
“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 tournament, which was elevated to Super 750 category in 2023, saw India field 14 entries in the past two editions, and India’s highlights were Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy reaching the men’s doubles final and HS Prannoy making the men’s singles semifinals in 2024.
Chirag and Satwik, semifinalists at the 2024 China Masters, will lead India’s men’s doubles charge. Satwik, returning from injury, will look to regain his form after limited play since the Paris Olympics.
Apart from Satwik-Chirag, India’s hopes will also rest on former champion Lakshya Sen and two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu.
The competition will feature 18 of the world’s top-20 men’s singles players and 14 of the top-20 women’s singles shuttlers.
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 pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen and Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
LIST OF INDIA 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.
