Badminton Asia Championships 2025: Kiran George Eases Into Second Round; Prannoy, Laskhya Sen Out in Opener

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India's Kiran George eased past Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Panarin to reach the second round in the Badminton Asia Championships 2025 at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Ningbo, China on Wednesday (April 9).

The 25-year-old George, who reached the Korea Masters semi-final earlier this year, registered a straight games 21-16, 21-8 victory over the Kazakh shuttler in the men's singles opening round match that lasted 35 minutes.

Kiran will next face a familiar foe in Thailand's Kunvalut Vitidsarn in the pre-quarterfinal on Thursday (April 10). The third seeded Thai got the better of the young Indian in the last four of the Korea Masters 2025.

While George progressed to the second round, experienced singles stars HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen made an early exit from the competition after contrasting defeats in their opening round matches.

Prannoy continued his poor run this year as the Asian Games bronze medallist Indian shuttler made an early exit after losing the men's singles opener against Zu Guang Lu of China.

Prannoy, who hasn't been at his best since suffering a bout of Chikungunya, lost to his Chinese opponent by a scoreline of 16-21, 21-12, 11-21 in a round of 32 match that lasted one hour and eight minutes.

Commonwealth Games champion Sen, on the other hand, went down in straight games against Chinese Taipei's Lee Chia-hao by a scoreline of 18-21, 10-21 in the men's singles first round match that lasted 35 minutes.

In women's singles, Malvika Bansod, Aakarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya lost their respective matches to crash out of the tournament. Bansod suffered a straight games 14-21, 8-21 against China's Gao Fangjie in 37 minutes.

Meanwhile, Aakarshi lost to second seed Han Yue of China by a score of 13-21, 7-21 in 31 minutes, and Anupama was beaten by eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand by a scoreline of 13-21, 14-21 in 36 minutes.

In women's doubles, the lone Indian pair of Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra suffered a straight games defeat to Chinese Taipei's Shuo Yun Sung and Chien Hui Yu 11-21, 13-21 in 35 minutes.

In men's doubles, the unheralded duo of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi beat Sri Lankan pair of Madhuka Dulanjana and Lahiru Weerasinghe 21-3, 21-12 in just 19 minutes to reach the second round.

However, the other Indian men's duo of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K lost to Chinese Taipei pair of Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin 19-21, 12-21.

Priyanshu Rajawat and PV Sindhu will play in their respective men's and women's singles matches later in the day, as the two Indian shuttlers will look to join George and the other Indian doubles stars who have qualified to the second round.

Earlier on Tuesday (April 8), Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto and Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh progressed to the second round in the mixed doubles category, while the pairs of Sathish Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath and Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde made a first round exit.