Japan Masters 2023: HS Prannoy Wins On Return From Injury Lay-Off; Lakhsya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat Crash Out

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Kumamoto (Japan), November 15: HS Prannoy on Wednesday (November 15) returned from injury lay-off with a hard-fought win in the opening round of the Japan Masters 2023 at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium in Kumamoto, Japan.

Seventh seed Prannoy, who was sidelined since his historic Asian Games bronze medal, made a winning start on his return as he kept India's challenge alive in Kumamoto with a victory over Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu by a scoreline of 22-20, 19-21, 21-17 in an hour and 4 minutes.

Prannoy had pulled out of last month's Denmark and French Open due to a back injury that troubled him during his historic bronze medal-winning performance at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

The 31-year-old showed no signs of rustiness, but was tested by the Hong Kong shuttler in the three games, starting with the first game, which went down to the wire and ended in favour of the Indian.

Lee fought back in the second game to win 21-19 to force the decider, which was also closely contested until the interval. But after the interval, Prannoy raced to the lead and took the match after a 21-17 win in the final game.

Prannoy, who is the lone Indian left in the tournament, will next face Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-chen in the men's singles second round on Thursday (November 16).

Earlier on Wednesday (November 15), Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat suffered straight games loss to crash out in the opening round of the men's singles competition.

While Sen lost to fourth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan by a scoreline of 17-21, 10-21 in 45 minutes, Rajawat lost to Lin Chun-yi of Chinese Taipei by a scoreline of 15-21, 12-21 in 32 minutes.

Earlier on Tuesday (November 14), India's top doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the lone pair from the country competing in the inaugural Japan Masters tournament, also suffered a first round exit.

The fifth seed Indian pair, who won an historic Asian Games gold medal last month, lost to Chinese Taipei's Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han in three games 21-16, 18-21, 16-21 in an hour and 3 minutes.