Hylo Open 2025: Lakshya Sen stuns defending champion Christo Popov, Unnati Hooda advances to second round

Sen will next take on S. Sankar Muthusamy in second round.

Lakshya Sen has found his rhythm again. The Indian badminton star kicked off his BWF Hylo Open 2025 campaign in style, taking down defending champion Christo Popov in the round of 32. And it wasn’t just Sen, several Indian players had a strong outing on Day 2 in Germany.

Coming off a tough first-round exit at the French Open last week, India’s top men’s singles shuttler looked sharp and focused since the start of the match.

Sen started aggressively, leading early 5-3, before Popov fought back to level things at 13-all and then took the lead ahead. But the Indian wasn’t letting this one slip away. From 13–15 down, he shifted gears, winning five straight points to claim the opening game 21–16.

The second game was even more tense. Popov led early at 5–3, and both players kept trading points until 17–20—match point to Popov. But Sen, with the same kind of brilliance and fight that made him a Commonwealth Games champion, clawed back to steal the game 22–20 and seal the win.

With this result, Sen now leads the Frenchman 4–2 in their head-to-head record, and more importantly, this win could be the confidence booster he’s been searching for enroute to his first title of the season.

It was also a good day for Kiran George, who upset former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth 21–19, 21–11 in an all-Indian clash.

In women’s singles, Shriyanshi Valishetty pulled off one of the biggest shocks of the day, beating third seed Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21–19, 21–12.

Also Read: Full list of players who have already qualified for BWF World Tour Finals 2025

She’ll next face fellow Indian Rakshitha Santhosh Ramraj, who breezed past Clara Azurmendi of Spain 21–14, 21–16.

Then, the Indian teen sensation Unnati Hooda was all business, crushing Brazil’s Juliana Vianna Vieira 21–4, 21–13 in under half an hour.

But perhaps the most heartwarming and heartbreaking story of the day belonged to Anmol Kharb. The 18-year-old Indian recently turned heads at the Arctic Open 2025 with a stellar semi-final run.

She fought her heart out against Denmark’s Julie Dawall Jakobsen in Germany but unfortunately fell just short, losing 24–26, 21–23 in one of the most thrilling and nail-biting battle of the event.

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