World championship medallist HS Prannoy pulled off a stunning comeback to enter the men’s singles Round of 16 at the China Open 2025, a BWF Super 1000 event underway at the Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium in Changzhou on Tuesday.
Facing World No.18 Koki Watanabe of Japan, Prannoy bounced back from a sluggish start to claim a nail-biting 8-21, 21-16, 23-21 win in just under an hour.
Prannoy, a former top-10 player, was nowhere near the Japanese in the opening game but bounced back strongly in the second, forcing a decider with sharper court coverage and better control.
In the final game, the Indian trailed 2-11 before picking up five points in a row to narrow the gap. Still, he found himself staring at defeat at 15-20, with Watanabe holding five match points. But Prannoy showed nerves of steel, saving five match points before taking a slender 21-20 lead and eventually sealing a memorable win.
“Unexpected, I would say. It doesn’t go your way most of the time. I’m lucky to be on the winning side. You have to take all wins as they come. Yeah, I think at this point of my career, I think each and every win kind of matters out there. But I’m happy to be back on tour,” Prannoy said of his gruelling win.
The world No. 35 Prannoy now faces sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals.
“There have been small breaks here and there. Obviously the level of playing men’s singles has gone really high. So winning each round is getting tougher day by day. Struggling to keep up with the younger guys. I think the average age has become 22-23 all of a sudden in the men’s singles category. A lot of fresh faces and you don’t really know what their game is. So I think it’s tough to be a veteran out there,” the 33-year-old Indian added.
Meanwhile, it was a tough day for Lakshya Sen, whose poor run continued as he squandered a one-game advantage to suffer a 21-14, 22-24, 11-21 loss to China’s fifth seed Li Shi Feng.
Elsewhere, it was a disappointing outing for Anupama Upadhyay in the women’s singles, as she exited in the opening round following a 23-21, 11-21, 10-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Hsiang Ti. The mixed doubles pair of A Surya and A Pramuthesh, and Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde, also bowed out despite forcing their respective matches into deciding games.