PV Sindhu makes winning return at India Open 2025

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu shrugged off the rustiness of a long competition break to secure a straight-game victory over Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei. Meanwhile, late entrant Kiran George navigated a topsy-turvy encounter against Japan's Yushi Tanaka in the opening round of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2025 badminton tournament at the KD Jadhav Hall on Tuesday.

Sindhu, competing in her first tournament since getting married in December last year, initially struggled to find her rhythm during the 51-minute clash against her opponent, who competes in both singles and doubles. However, she raised her game when it mattered, winning 21-14, 22-20. Kiran, on the other hand, missed three match points and saved three before prevailing 21-19, 14-21, 27-25 in an hour and 11 minutes in the opening round of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event.

India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also survived a scare to edge past Malaysia's Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee in their men's doubles round of 32 match. The Indian duo won the first game 23-21, lost the second 19-21, but bounced back to take the deciding third game 21-16, advancing to the round of 16.

Among the other Indians in action, the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha



Crasto fought back from a game down to defeat Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu Yin-Hui of Chinese Taipei 8-21, 21-19, 21-17. However, the fifth-seeded women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 21-23, 19-21 to Japan's Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto in the opening round.

In an upset during the morning session, Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao defeated Chinese fifth seed Li Shi Feng 18-21, 21-17, 21-17. In women's singles, Singapore's seventh seed Yeo Jia Min saved two match points in the second game to overcome Vietnam's Thuy Linh Nguyen 19-21, 22-20, 21-5.

The star attraction of the day was Sindhu, who is making a comeback on the BWF circuit after a long hiatus since the Paris Olympics. She dominated the opening game but faltered briefly, squandering four game points from 20-10. Sung carried the momentum into the second game, racing to an 11-4 lead. Sindhu gradually closed the gap, levelling at 13-13. Although Sung managed to earn a game point, Sindhu rallied to clinch the match.

"After a long break, it's always difficult to find rhythm, but I'm happy to have won straight games. My shuttle placement was off in the second game, but I was confident I could pull through," said the world No. 16, who will face Japan's Manami Suizu in the second round.