India Open 2026: Lakshya remains Indias lone hope

Lakshya Sen remained the lone Indian in the singles draw of the India Open Super 750 badminton event on Thursday (January 15, 2026), advancing to the quarterfinals with the remaining local hopefuls faltering in the second round to a combination of erratic play, misjudgement and poor performance.

Title favourites and World No. 3 Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were upset by the Japanese pair of Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita 25-27, 23-21, 21-19. The show-stealers on the day, however, were Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, pushing the World No. 8 Chinese pair of Yi Jing Li and Xu Min Luo all the way before going down 20-22, 24-22, 23-21 in an hour and 23 minutes, the longest match of the tournament so far.

The 2022 winner Sen beat Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 21-10 to break a two-match losing streak to his opponent, relying on mixing his pace and shots and a strong defence to overcome a jittery start. Sen often trailed the Japanese by 4-5 points but kept engaging in long rallies to negate Nishimoto’s smashes, taking off five straight points from 14-18 to inch ahead in the first game and wrap it up, before clinically dismantling his opponent in the second. He will next face Taiwan’s Chun-Yi Lin.

With three men in the second round, the smattering of fans would have hoped for a better result, specially with both Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy having their moments but failing to capitalise on them. Srikanth had a slow start against World Tour Finals winner Christo Popov but found his rhythm and fought back in the second to take the match into the decider. But trailing the game at 9-12 and still in with a chance, the Indian misjudged a shot, allowed Popov to reel off four straight points and lost the fight 21-14, 17-21, 21-17.

Prannoy, meanwhile, won the opening game against eighth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, saving three game points in the second but failing to finish. Former world champion Yew raised the tempo in the decider to seal the win 18-21, 21-19, 21-14. In the women’s singles, Chinese fifth seed Han Yue beat Malvika Bansod 21-18, 21-15.

Treesa Gayatri, meanwhile, came agonisingly close to an upset win, stunning their higher-ranked and more experienced opponents to take the first game and were serving for the match at 21-20 in the second before Gayatri’s short serve handed the Chinese a lifeline and they gladly took it to force the decider. It was still anyone’s game with the Indians repeatedly coming back to level scores and kept fighting hard, including taking off an incredible 103-shot rally, but eventually ran out of steam.

Key results:

Women: An Se Young (Kor) bt Yu-Hsun Huang (Tpe) 21-14, 21-9; Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt Mia Blichfeldt (Den) 21-16, 21-11; Yue Han (Chn) bt Malvika Bansod 21-18, 21-15; Chen Yu Fei (Chn) bt Busanan Ongbamrungphan (Tha) 21-11, 21-13; Yi Jing Li/Xu Min Luo (Chn) bt Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand 20-22, 24-22, 23-21.

Men: Lakshya Sen bt Kenta Nishimoto (Jpn) 21-19, 21-10; Christo Popov (Fra) bt Kidambi Srikanth 21-14, 17-21, 21-17; Loh Kean Yew (Sin) bt HS Prannoy 18-21, 21-19, 21-14; Wei Keng Liang/Chang Wang (Chn) bt Hariharan Amsakarunan/MR Arjun 21-15, 21-15; Hiroki Midorikawa/Kyohei Yamashita (Jpn) bt Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy 25-27, 23-21, 21-19.