India to field biggest-ever contingent in India Open; Olympic champs Axelsen, Se Young among other stars

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Host India will field its biggest-ever contingent of 21 entries in the third edition of the India Open, the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament, scheduled from January 14 to 19 at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall, Indira Gandhi Stadium.

In the last two Super 750 editions, India had a total of 14 entries each with Asian Games men’s doubles gold medallists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy reaching the men’s doubles final and Asian Games bronze medallist HS Prannoy making it to the men’s singles last four stages in 2024.

This edition of the BWF World Tour Super 750 event will see host India getting 21 entries – three in men’s singles, four in women’s singles, two in men’s doubles, eight in women’s doubles and four in mixed doubles.

Top stars like Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen, An Se Young, and world No. 1 Shi Yuqi will be leading the star-studded field.

This Super 750 event has been a flag-ship competition organised by the Badminton Association of India. The tournament, which was elevated as a Super 750 in 2023, is part of the BWF World Tour, offering participants a prize pool of USD 9,50,000 and 11,000 points for the champions.

"The 2025 India Open is a clear indication of how Indian players are steadily carving out their place among the best in global badminton. With so many Indian players competing in a Super 750 event, it’s a remarkable sign of the growth and rise of Indian badminton on the world stage. This is just the beginning—2025 promises to be a year where more names will feature alongside the established names, while fresh faces will emerge and shine bringing glory and pride to India," said Sanjay Mishra, general secretary, Badminton Association of India.

Apart from Chirag-Satwik and Prannoy, India will be looking at 2022 men’s singles champion Lakshya Sen, and two-time Olympic medallist and former world women’s singles champion PV Sindhu to challenge for the prestigious title.

The quality of competition can be gauged from the fact that only two players from the top-20 ranked men’s singles players will be missing in action in New Delhi, while the women’s singles draw will have 14 of the top-20 players competing.

With many top players in doubles categories announcing retirement after the Paris Olympics or changing partners, the paired events are expected to come up with a few surprise results but the focus of Indian fans will expectedly be on the performance of Chirag and Satwik, as the latter is coming back after an injury lay-off and hasn’t played much after the Olympics.

The men’s doubles line-up is being led by China’s Paris Olympics silver medal-winning combination of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang along with Paris bronze medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, Danish combination of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen and Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto will also be in action.

List of Indian players:

Men's singles - Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajawat

Women's singles - PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod, Anupama Upadhyaya, Aakarshi Kashyap

Men's doubles - Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, K Sai Pratheek/Pruthvi K Roy

Women's doubles - Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda, Mansa Rawat/Gayatri Rawat, Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautam, Sakshi Gahlawat/Apoorva Gahlawat, Sania Sikkandar/Rashmi Ganesh, Mrunmayee Deshpande/Prerana Alvekar

Mixed doubles - Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto, K Sathish Kumar/Aadya Variyath, Rohan Kapoor/G Ruthvika Shivani, Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh.

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