Sen, Prannoy, Rajawat Out: Indian challenge dwindles

The Indians were ousted in the men's singles in the first round of the India Open badminton

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI: Priyanshu Rajawat was cramping up. HS Prannoy was at '60-70%' and yet to completely recover from his health issues. And it just wasn't Lakshya Sen's day at the $950,000 India Open badminton here.

The defeats - in the span of 90 minutes on Wednesday evening - of India's three highest ranked men's singles players means the hosts will barely have any representation in the category at the Super 750 tournament going into the second round.

Kiran George, who was promoted from the reserve list after Indonesian eighth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting pulled out, will be the only Indian men's singles player taking the court on Thursday in a category considered the country's strongest. And Kiran won't have it easy either as he will take on rising French shuttler Alex Lanier, who knocked out reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the opener on Tuesday.

It wasn't Lakshya's day at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex - he lost 15-21, 10-21 to Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-Yi - but India's highest ranked shuttler has barely had any 'my day' since the Olympics. The world No. 12 came close to medalling in Paris, but two meltdowns saw him miss out on the podium.