India’s Lakshya Sen and doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy–Chirag Shetty had to endure disappointment at the Hong Kong Open 2025 badminton tournament on Sunday as they lost in their respective finals.
Lakshya Sen, the Paris 2024 semi-finalist, lost the men’s singles crown to the People’s Republic of China’s Li Shifeng, who is the reigning Asian Games champion.
SatChi, meanwhile, finished second best to Chinese duo Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang – the Paris 2024 silver medallists in men’s doubles – on the day.
World No. 20 Lakshya Sen, who had stunned Chou Tien-chen to qualify for the final, failed to replicate the magic from the semis against Li Shifeng, currently fourth in the men’s singles badminton rankings.
The Indian badminton player lost the title decider 21-15, 21-12 at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
In the first game, Lakshya Sen started well but committed a few soft errors, giving Li Shifeng an opening, which the Chinese shuttler capitalised on.
Li Shifeng was solid at the back court and brilliant at the net as he comfortably took the opening game.
The second game followed a similar pattern with the Indian leading 4-1 early on before the Chinese player took control yet again with phases of brilliance. Li Shifeng wrapped up the final in 45 minutes to level his head-to-head record against Lakshya at seven-all.
This was Laskhya Sen’s first final appearance on the BWF World Tour since winning the Syed Modi International last year.
Meanwhile, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s first final appearance since winning the Thailand Open last year also ended on a disappointing note as they lost to China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, the Paris 2024 silver medallists, 19-21, 21-14, 21-17.
After a close start to the match, it was the Indian duo who took a slim one-point lead into the first interval and proceeded to race to a 17-13 lead from that point.
However, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, who had lost to the Indian pair only thrice in nine meetings heading into Sunday’s fixture, fought back to level the score at 17-all.
Satwik-Chirag, though, held on in face of the Chinese comeback to take the opening game.
Having lost the opening game, the Chinese duo came out swinging in the second and hardly allowed the Indians any breathing room between furious rallies. The Olympic runner ups comfortably won the game to force the decider.
Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang scored the first six points in the deciding game before SatChi could respond. The Chinese pair led 12-3 at one stage.
There was a late rally by the Indians but the early deficit proved too big to overcome against quality opponents. The match finished in just over an hour.
So far, Ayush Shetty is the only Indian to win a BWF World Tour event in 2025 at the US Open. He was ousted in the quarter-finals at the Hong Kong Open by Lakshya.