Indian tennis star HS Prannoy made a triumphant return to the badminton court as he kickstarted the year with a win in his opening match at the Malaysian Open 2025 being held in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Prannoy defeated Brian Yang of Canada by 21-12, 17-21, 21-15. His comeback effort lasted one hour and 29 minutes.
Also, the mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila kickstarted their campaign with a win over South Korea’s Ko Sung-hyun and Eom Hye-won by 21-13, 21-14 in two successive games. The match lasted 30 minutes.
Also, coming to the women’s singles competition, Malvika Bansod started her tournament with a bang, securing a win over Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia by 2-15, 21-16.
Ace Indian shuttler and Paris Olympics 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya Sen lost his Malaysia Open 2025 badminton tournament clash against Chinese Taipei’s Chi Yu-Jen in straight games at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday.
The Indian badminton player, 12th in the BWF rankings, failed to put up a fight against the world No. 32 shuttler, going down 14-21, 7-21 in his men’s singles round of 32 contest. This was the first meeting between the two badminton players.
Prannoy marked his return to court for the first time since the Paris 2024 Olympics in a start-stop match against Canada’s Brian Yang.
Ranked 26th, Prannoy won the first game 21-12 before play was halted due to a leaky roof in the stadium in the second with the score reading 6-3 in the Indian’s favour at the time.
The match resumed briefly after a 25-minute disruption and Brian Yang fought back to take an 11-9 lead in the second game before the encounter was halted once again due to persistent leakage through the roof.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their women’s doubles round of 32 match at the BWF Super 1000 tournament after beating Thailand’s Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai.
Despite a bit of trouble at the break of the second game, sixth-seeded Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand registered a comfortable 21-10, 21-10 victory over their unseeded opponents.
The Indian duo will take on the world No. 4 pair of Zhang Shuxian and Jia Yifan of the People’s Republic of China in their next match.
