New Delhi [India], January 14 : Former champion PV Sindhu brushed off the rustiness of a long competition break to register a straight games win over Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei while late entrant Kiran George came through a topsy-turvy encounter against Japan's Yushi Tanaka in the opening round of the India Open 2025 badminton tournament at the KD Jadhav Hall in New Delhi on Tuesday, according to a release from Badminton Association of India (BAI).
Sindhu, playing her first tournament after getting married in December last year, struggled with her rhythm during the 51-minute clash against an opponent who plays both singles and doubles but upped the tempo when required to win 21-14, 22-20, while Kiran missed three match points and saved three himself before beating Tanaka 21-19, 14-21, 27-25 in an hour and 11 minutes in the opening round of the BWF World Tour Super 750 event.
Among the other Indians in the fray, the mixed doubles combination of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto fought back from a game down to beat Chen Cheng Kuan of Hsu Yin-Hui Chinese Taipei 8-21, 21-19, 21-17 while fifth-seeded women's doubles combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down 21-23, 19-21 against Japan's Arisa Igarashi Ayako Sakuramoto in the opening round.
In the only other upset of the day in the morning session, Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia packed off Chinese fifth seed Li Shi Feng 18-21, 21-17, 21-17. In women's singles, seventh seed 7-Yeo Jia Min of Singapore saved two match points in the second game to beat Vietnam's Thuy Linh Nguyen 19-21, 22-20, 21-5.
But the star attraction of the day was Sindhu, who has been making a comeback of sorts on the BWF circuit after a long break since the Paris Olympics. She raced through the opening game and looked in control before she dropped four-game points from 20-10.
The momentum stayed with Sung in the second game as the Taipei shuttler raced to a 4-11 lead. Sindhu then raised the tempo to close in at 13-13. Sung managed to keep pace and even earned a game point before the Indian turned things around to win.
"After a long break, it's always difficult to find the rhythm but I am happy to have won the match in straight games. My shuttle was going midcourt in the second game but I was always confident that I could pull things off," said the world no. 16, who will now face Japan's Manami Suizu in the second round.
Earlier, Kiran survived a close encounter against Tanaka. The Indian started strong in the opening game only to be pulled back by his errors. He managed to pocket the opening game despite the struggle but his Japanese opponent raced through the second to force the decider.
Kiran, who got an entry in the competition at the last minute, then opened up a big lead at the break in the third before another series of errors allowed Tanaka to fight his way into the match. However, despite missing three match points from 20-18, the Indian kept his nerves to save three match points himself before finding the winning point.
"I was hoping for the last-minute entry as I was first reserved and had come here on Saturday itself to ensure that I am well prepared," said Kiran, who will next face the winner of the match between fourth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand and Alex Lanier of France.
"Even last year, I lost 4-5 matches from a winning position and hence I have been working on such situations in practice. Even today, things go difficult but I managed to keep my composure and pull through," he added.
In the morning session, the Indian mixed doubles combination of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto fought back from a disastrous opening game and explained what had gone wrong for them.
"I think the first game we couldn't really understand the conditions. Especially in the morning, we were freezing out. But I think, in the second and third game we were moving very quick and not giving easy attacks to them and that pretty much changed the game," said Kapila, who is now focusing completely on mixed doubles.
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