Prannoy's Comeback: Indian Shuttlers Battle for World Tour Finals Spots

Prannoy, a Badminton World Championships bronze medallist, last featured at the Korea Open back in September, where he made an opening round exit after having to withdraw from his match due to injury, according to Olympics.com.

It has been a difficult 2025 season for the 33-year-old Prannoy, who has not advanced past the second round in any of his 14 BWF World Tour appearances in 2025, suffering eight first-round exits along the way.

Paris 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya Sen, who sat out last week's Korea Masters, will also hope for a good showing at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium over the course of the week to help his bid to qualify for the season-ending World Tour Finals.

Placed 13th in the Race to Finals rankings, Lakshya is the only Indian singles player with a realistic chance of qualifying for the season-ending tournament, which is reserved for the top eight players and doubles teams every year.

A good run at the Japan Masters - a BWF Super 500 grade tournament - will aid Lakshya with valuable ranking points to climb up the rankings.

The Indian badminton player has been enduring a mixed season so far with a handful of early exits punctuated by a few quarter-final and semi-final appearances. His deepest run was at the Hong Kong Open, where he finished runner-up, according to Olympics.com.

Ayush Shetty, who is the only Indian to win a BWF title this year courtesy his US Open triumph, is also in the men's singles draw in Japan along with Kiran George and Tharun Mannepalli.

With two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu ending her season early and the likes of Anmol Kharb, Tanya Hemanth and Shriyanshi Valishetty withdrawing, 17-year-old Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye is the only Indian entry in women's singles and starts from the qualifiers.

Naishaa, who played a young Saina Nehwal in the Olympic medallist's Bollywood biopic titled Saina, has only appeared in two Super 100 BWF senior tournaments prior to this.

Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pulling out from the tournament has also left the mixed pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde as the country's only doubles challenge at the Kumamoto Masters, Japan 2025.

- ANI