Indian badminton stars PV Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made winning starts to their campaigns at the Singapore Open 2026 on Tuesday.
Competing at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sindhu defeated Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-17, 21-18 in the women’s singles opening round.
The 2022 champion controlled large parts of the first game before facing resistance late on. After the scores were level at 16-16, Sindhu won five consecutive points to take the opening game. The second game proved more closely contested, but the Indian maintained her composure at crucial moments to complete the straight-games victory.
The win also helped Sindhu level her head-to-head record against the fifth-seeded Indonesian at 3-3. She will next face Japan’s Riko Gunji in the pre-quarterfinals.
Satwik-Chirag recover after losing opening game
In men’s doubles, world No. 4 pair Satwik and Chirag came through a tough three-game battle against Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith.
The Indian duo narrowly lost the opening game 26-28 despite saving seven game points. However, they responded strongly to take the next two games 21-15 and 21-13 and seal victory after one hour and 15 minutes of play.
They will next face the Chinese Taipei pair Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the Round of 16.
Meanwhile, Ayush Shetty suffered a first-round exit in men’s singles despite taking the opening game against Victor Lai 21-11. The Indian could not maintain the momentum and eventually lost 14-21, 12-21 in the next two games.
Other Indian players in action on the opening day also bowed out of the tournament.
