Badminton Star Lakshya Sen Suffers Comprehensive Loss to Hometown Hero Kodai Naraoka, Eliminated From Japan Open 2025

India's badminton challenge at the Japan Open 2025 took a further hit when star singles player Lakshya Sen suffered a straight-games loss in the Japan Open badminton tournament, which has already seen the eliminations of PV Sindhu and men's doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. 

Sen was up against home favourite Kodai Naraoka and was unable to put up much of a fight, suffering a 21-19, 21-11 loss in the second round of the prestigious Super 750 tournament. 

The result means that India's challenge is all but over as the only Indian still alive in the tournament as of this writing is Anupama Upadhyaya. 

ALSO READ | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty Knocked Out of Japan Open

Sen Suffers Japan Open 2025 Heartbreak

Hopes were high that Sen, India's highest-ranked men's singles player could make a decent run in the tournament as he beat China’s Wang Zheng Xing quite comfortably in the first round. 

However, once he went down in the first game 21-19, it seemed over for him as the gruelling nature of the first game knocked the proverbial wind out of his sales. 

He was then unable to put up much of a fight in the second game and could only score 11 points in response to Naraoka, and was thus eliminated from the tournament. 

ALSO READ | PV Sindhu Continues to Struggle for Form, Knocked Out of Japan Open Rd 1

Sindhu, Sat-Chi Eliminations Raise Big Concerns

His defeat came straight after the Sat-Chi duo lost to the Chinese pair of Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang, losing 24-22, 21-14 in straight games. 

The first game which was contested by the Indian and Chinese pairs was extremely hard fought, as evidenced by the fact that it went into sudden death - but they were unable to compete as much in the second game. 

As for Sindhu, her elimination was much worse. She lost 15-21, 14-21 to South Korea's Sim Yu Jin in the first round itself. 

The first round loss in Japan was the seventh straight occasion that Sindhu fail to make it beyond the second round in a badminton tournament.

To make things worse, five first round exits came in the calendar year 2025 itself - highlighting how poor her recent run of form has been. 

It also raises concerns over the health of Indian badminton as 3 sure-shot medal contenders could not even make it to the final four.