India’s Lakshya Sen, seeded eighth in men’s singles at the Hong Kong Open 2023 badminton tournament, withdrew from the competition, granting his opponent, Chinese Taipei’s Su Li Yang, a walkover. Lakshya Sen was India’s leading contender at the tournament, as other top Indian badminton players like PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, and Kidambi Srikanth had opted out of the Hong Kong meet.

Sen, the Commonwealth Games champion who won the Canada Open Super 500 in July, pulled out from the tournament just hours before his scheduled match, impacting India’s prospects in the competition.

Following Sen’s withdrawal, Priyanshu Rajawat, India’s last remaining men’s singles player in the tournament, faced a first-round defeat, losing 13-21, 14-21 against Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.

However, there was a glimmer of hope for India in the women’s doubles category as the duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory over the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun, winning 21-19, 21-19.

Despite this, it was an overall disappointing day for Indian shuttlers in Hong Kong. In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy B. Sumeeth put up a spirited fight against Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, but eventually lost by a narrow margin, 16-21, 21-16, 18-21, in their round of 32 match.