Singapore Open 2025: Satwik-Chirag duo leads Indian challenge; Prannoy, Lakshya, Sindhu in fray
The celebrated pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will make a much-anticipated return to elite competition after shaking off fitness concerns when the duo leads a star-studded Indian challenge at the Singapore Open Super 750 tournament starting on Tuesday.
The former world number one duo last played at the All England Championships in March but withdrew in the second round due to Chirag's back injury. They also pulled out of the Sudirman Cup because of Satwik's health issues.
Now fully fit, the Indian team, which reached the semifinals of the Malaysia Open and India Open earlier this year, will open against Malaysia's Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal.
Kidambi Srikanth, who managed to lift himself and the overall gloom that had set over Indian badminton in the past few months by reaching the finals of last week's Malaysia Masters, will not be competing.
ALSO READ | Fit-again Srikanth shows vintage form
H. S. Prannoy, a 2023 World Championships bronze medallist who witnessed the rampaging run of Srikanth at Kuala Lumpur, will look to produce a similarly gritty show when he begins his campaign against Denmark's Rasmus Gemke.
Prannoy is on a comeback trail after battling chikungunya last year. The 32-year-old, who has been bogged down by fitness issues and the after-effects of the illness, showed promise against Japan's Kenta Nishimoto last week but fell to Yushi Tanaka in the second round.
Lakshya Sen will look to silence doubts about his fitness when he faces Lin Chun-Yi in the opening round. The 23-year-old, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, has struggled to find form since reaching the Paris Olympics semifinal.
The 23-year-old, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, has struggled to find form since reaching the Paris Olympics semifinal. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Sen's four first-round exits this season have been an area of concern.
Similarly, Priyanshu Rajawat, 23, has tested the patience of Indian fans with six first-round exits while Kiran George, 25, has also failed to live up to expectations. He opens against China's Weng Hong Yang.
Sindhu leads women's challenge
In the women's singles, P. V. Sindhu remains a work in progress. Despite multiple coaching changes, consistent deep runs have eluded the two-time Olympic medallist.
The 29-year-old suffered a hamstring injury during training in Guwahati in February, forcing her to miss the Asia Team Championships.
Since returning, she has faced early defeats against players such as Thuy Linh Nguyen, Putri Kusuma Wardani, and Kim Gaeun.
Since returning from injury, Sindhu has faced early defeats in recent tournaments. | Photo Credit: AP
Sindhu, a former world champion, will face Canada's Wen Yu Zhang in the first round.
Other Indian women's players face tough draws — Anmol Kharb takes on former Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China, while Aakarshi Kashyap will be up against third seed Han Yue.
Malvika Bansod faces Thailand's Supanida Katethong and Rakshita Ramraj square off against South Korea's Kim Ga Eun.
Anupama Upadhyaya plays Chinese Taipei's Sung Shuo Yun, while Unnati Hooda will face second seed Wang Zhiyi, the Malaysia Masters champion.
India's top-ranked women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded eighth, will play Chinese Taipei's Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun.
The Mixed doubles pairs — Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto and Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Shivani Gadde — are also in the fray.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
33 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Benedicton Rohit clocks best Indian time in 100m butterfly at Nationals
Bhubaneswar, Tamil Nadu swimmer B. Benedicton Rohit set the pool ablaze on the opening day of the Senior National Aquatic Championship, smashing the the 'Best Indian Time' in the men's 100m butterfly to clinch the gold here on Sunday. HT Image Rohit clocked an impressive 52.57s at the indoor Aquatic Centre at the Kalinga Stadium. With his performance, he erased the long-standing Best Indian Time of 52.77s, set by Asian Games medallists Virdhawal Khade in 2009 while also eclipsing the previous national record of 53.24s held by two-time Olympian Sajan Prakash. With the record breaking swim, Rohit also achieved the 'B' qualification time for the World Championship scheduled to be held in Singapore from July 27. Prakash, representing All India Police, settled for silver with a time of 53.51s, while Railways' Bikram Changmai claimed bronze in 54.35s. In the women's 100m butterfly, Odisha's Shristi Upadhaya and Railways' Astha Choudhary shared the top step of the podium, both clocking identical 1:03.50. Karnataka swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu finished a close third. Karnataka's Aneesh S Gowda edged past Prakash in a thrilling men's 200m freestyle final, clocking 1:50.85 to win by just 0.01 seconds. Prakash timed 1:50.86 for silver, while Shoan Ganguly , also from Karnataka, bagged bronze. The Karnataka quartet of Tanish Mathew, Chinthan Shetty, Dharshan S, and Aneesh Gowda won gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay with a time of 7:40.90. Maharashtra's team of Atharva Sankpal, Shubham Dhaygude, Om Satam, and Rishabh Das clocked 7:44.98 for a silver Services' quartet — Unni Krishnan S, Adarsh S, Gotteti Sampath Kumar Yadav, and Anand A.S. — took bronze in 7:46.29. Other winners on the day included Delhi's Bhavya Sachdeva , Railways' Harshitha Jayaram , Tamil Nadu's Danush Suresh . In swimming, a timing is considered a national record only when it has been achieved at the National Aquatics Championships. Hence, the timings clocked in other meets are called the best Indian time. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
34 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
India's woeful catching lets England off the hook
Kolkata: Harry Brook led a charmed life at Headingley, till he ran out of luck. There is no greater agony than to be dismissed one run short of a hundred at a ground one has grown up playing cricket. But it's also true Brook had no business lasting as long as he did. India's woeful catching gave him two lives, at two very curious junctures of the day. Both came behind the wicket, by the wicketkeeper and then gully, positions you are probability-wise more assured of these catches being taken. This, however, was also a strange day where easy catches were dropped and stupendous catches manufactured. But that doesn't lessen the damage by any extent. Four catches were dropped off Jasprit Bumrah's bowling alone on Day 3 of the First Test against England at Leeds. (AP) At the end of the Test, when every hour's play is expected to be audited and dissected, the dropped catches will hurt most. Because if there was ever a day worse than others to drop catches it was Sunday at Leeds, in the first of a five-match Test series, having got a first-innings total big enough to make England sweat. Both chances off Brook should have been held, both critically spaced out in the context of England's first-innings chase. The first came in the 72nd over, off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling. It was a flighted delivery that held its line, and Brook, trying to defend off his front foot, ended up edging it. The bounce was discerning but these are catches that must be taken at this level. Hard and high hands from Pant meant Brook was let off. Lesson 101 of keeping wicket to spinners is to rise as late as possible so that the eye level moves with that of the ball. This being Jadeja, who tends to bowl quicker through the air when the ball isn't gripping as well as in India, the timing of the wicketkeeper's rise becomes doubly important. Pant, never quite the stickler for the basics, ended up being horribly placed for the edge. Brook was on 46 then. By the time he was dropped again, Brook was on 80. In between, he had added 73 runs with Jamie Smith, blunted out Jasprit Bumrah and gone after Mohammed Siraj successfully to prompt quick bowling changes. Bumrah was summoned, and once again he was hitting the right lengths. Sensing that Brook was trying to hang back in his crease, Bumrah tried a short of length delivery and almost out of instinct Brook just hung his bat out at it. It flew off the bat but Jaiswal dropped the catch at gully, bringing the grand total of dropped catches off Bumrah to four. And this was probably the easiest, given the ball was travelling at shoulder height. Those two lives essentially helped Brook score 53 more runs and take England to 398/7 from 300/5. Who knows what kind of lead India would have won had Brook been caught by Pant? Only twice did the Indian fielding look smart — when Brook was finally caught at deep backward square leg, and when Smith was caught by Sai Sudharsan through a lovely combination catch. That catch was all Jadeja though, and a nice shakeup from the shock of seeing him grassing Ben Duckett at backward point on Sunday. To throw the ball back to Sudharsan while going over the boundary is something Jadeja can do in his sleep, and so it would be unfair to probably judge everyone by his standard. In total, four catches went down at the slip, Jaiswal being at the end of two of them involving Pope and Brook. Chances of edges to the slip cordon increase at venues where the ball is swinging with a fair degree of carry. Concentrating on slip catching is also relatively easier overseas since the decibel level is almost always less than in India. Which should make it all the more difficult for India to live with the fact that both Pope and Brook — centurion and near-centurion in England's innings — reached there partly because of the lives given to them.
Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
Carlos Alcaraz crowned king of Queen's for second time
Carlos Alcaraz (Getty Images) L ONDON: Carlos Alcaraz clinched his second Queen's Club title as the world number two warmed up for Wimbledon with a 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 win against Jiri Lehecka in Sunday's final. Alcaraz blasted 33 winners and 18 aces to subdue the gritty Czech world number 30 in two hours and 10 minutes in west London. Having won titles on clay at the French Open, Rome and Monte Carlo, as well as the hard courts of Rotterdam, Alcaraz has now collected five trophies in 2025. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! The 22-year-old has not lost since the Barcelona final against Holger Rune on April 20 and is enjoying the longest winning streak of his career with 18 successive victories. Top seeded Alcaraz is just the second Spanish man to win Queen's twice after Feliciano Lopez, who lifted the trophy in 2017 and 2019. "I'm happy to lift this trophy once again. It's a nightmare to play against Jiri, but it's been an incredible week," Alcaraz said. "I came without expectations. I just wanted to play good tennis and get used to the grass. "It's really special playing here every year. I can't wait to come back next year." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Your Best Life Starts Today Maximus Learn More Undo For a player raised on the clay courts of Spain, Alcaraz has developed into a formidable force on grass. The former world number one signalled his emergence on the surface by winning Queen's in 2023. He clinched the Wimbledon title for the first time just weeks later and defended his All England Club crown last year. Alcaraz, who has an 11-1 career record at Queen's, will start his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on June 30. After his semi-final win over Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday, Alcaraz fired an ominous message to his Wimbledon rivals, warning that his "grass-court mode" had been activated. And on the evidence of his relentless display against the obdurate Lehecka, he is in no mood to surrender his All England Club crown. - Ruthless Alcaraz - Playing his first tournament since his epic French Open victory against Jannik Sinner two weeks ago, Alcaraz's march to the Queen's showpiece made it five consecutive finals for the Spaniard. In contrast, Lehecka was playing in his first grass-court final after a shock win against British star Jack Draper in the last four. The 23-year-old was the first Czech in the Queen's final since Ivan Lendl in 1990. Lehecka had come from a set down to stun Alcaraz in the Qatar Open quarter-finals in February. But there would be no repeat of that upset on the lawns of Barons Court. In his second Queen's final, Alcaraz had an early chance to break in the fifth game of the first set. Lehecka thundered down an ace to get out of trouble of that occasion. But the five-time Grand Slam champion matched Lehecka's serve blow for blow, dropping just one point in his first four service games. Alcaraz's piercing ground-strokes increased the pressure and Lehecka finally cracked in the the 11th game when an badly-timed double-fault gifted the first break to the Spaniard. Alcaraz served out the set in typically ruthless fashion, but Lehecka refused to surrender without a fight. A tight second set stayed on serve all the way through to the tie-break and, for once, Alcaraz stumbled with a key double-fault, allowing Lehecka to level the match. Alcaraz was unfazed, breaking for a 3-1 lead in the deciding set when Lehecka netted an off-balance forehand. Alcaraz had the finish line in sight and he wrapped up his latest title triumph with a flurry of searing winners. Follow all the live updates, scores, and highlights from the India vs England Test match here . Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here
