New Delhi: 20 main draw entries, 0 in the semi-finals.
Indian shuttlers endured a forgettable outing at the 2026 India Open, marking the hosts’ worst performance in the tournament since it was promoted to a BWF World Tour Super 750 event in 2023.
When Lakshya Sen, the final man standing for the hosts, went down Lin Chun Yi on Friday evening a large chunk of the home fans vacated the stadium with a deep sense of disappointment.
Sen’s own reaction summed it up. As he sat on the court with his eyes closed after a hard fought loss, a million thoughts would have crossed his mind.
After all, this is the same venue he and the rest of the shuttlers would return to seven months down the line for the 2026 BWF World Tour Finals.
But to be fair to Sen, he was one of India’s better performers in the tournament. Arguably, the only silver lining in a tournament marred with controversies.
Fan favourite and India’s top women’s singles player PV Sindhu, who was fresh from her solid semi-final run last week at the Malaysia Open Super 1000, had yet another failure.
She lost in her first round matchup to Thuy Linh Nguyen in a three-game encounter, marking her third straight defeat against the Vietnamese shuttler.
Missed Chances
India had a couple of near misses in the second round, especially for the top Indian women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
The young Indian duo played a marathon 84-minute match, playing three deuce games against China’s Li YJ and Luo XM. But then in a game of thin margin, they missed out on two match points to concede the contest.
On the other hand, the youngest member of the team, Tanvi Sharma, had a good chance of finishing the game in straight games, but she also failed to hold her composure and lost the first round match.
Playing against world No 2 Wang Zhi Yi of China, Tanvi had a good advantage (19-17) in the first game but couldn’t capitalise, which cost her the match eventually, despite forcing a decider.
A rare early exit for Satwik-Chirag
The most disappointing result for India, however, came from their most consistent players. The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in the second round.
They lost a tough match in a 73-minute-long three-game encounter to Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita, 27-25, 21-23, 19-21, despite being a game up.
The duo also started the tournament very late compared to everyone because of a walkover in first round, which hampered their preparation for first few days.
“It takes a while to adjust to a new stadium, and we couldn’t play on the main court and were training at the practice court for three days, so it’s a bit different. But I don’t wanna give an excuse like that, it is the reason, or that could have worked,” said Chirag, after their loss.
This was only the fifth instance in their last 15 BWF World Tour tournaments where they failed to reach the quarter-finals, showcasing their consistency over the last year.
In the last couple of seasons, Satwik-Chirag were the reasons behind India’s much longer run in the tournament, being only semi-finalists last year and the finalists a year before.
Lack of Consistency
Last time an Indian shuttler won a Super 750 tournament was almost two years back in March 2024, when Satwik-Chirag clinched the French Open on the same venue which would go on to host the 2024 Paris Olympics a few months later.
If we keep aside Satwik and Chirag’s consistent performances, then the last time an Indian shuttler reached the final of a Super 750+ tournament was Lakshya Sen at the All-England Championships in 2022.
In a very important year with multiple major tournaments like Asian Games, Thomas & Uber Cup and the home World Championships, the lack of consistency in higher ranked events is a major concern.
Although a few youngsters have shown some good signs in the last couple of years, Indian badminton could well be playing catch-up come the home World C’ships.
