India Open 2026: Jonatan Christie’s Semifinal Schedule & Updates

New Delhi, LONG LIVE – Indonesian men’s singles Jonathan Christie it will be the only red and white representative to play in the semi-finals Open India 2026 which was held today, Saturday, January 17, 2026, at Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex, New Delhi.

According to the official schedule, Jonatan Christie will face the Singapore badminton players Loh Kean Yes in the semi-finals of the men’s singles sector. The match will be played on Court 1 and will start at 12.30 WIB.

Jonathan secured his place in the top four after eliminating French badminton player Christo Popov in the quarter-finals on Friday. Appearing as the third seed in the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament, Jonathan won two consecutive matches with scores of 21-19, 21-19 in a close match.

“Firstly, thank God we managed to qualify for the semi-finals again. It’s like a good start to the beginning of the year, here and yesterday Malaysia managed to reach the semi-finals. Hopefully at the India Open we can go further,” Jonatan said, quoted in the PBSI release.

Even though he won consecutive matches, Jonathan admitted that the match against Popov was not easy. He assessed that the pitch conditions and wind factors were quite influential, especially in the first match, making it difficult for the opponents to develop their game.

In the second game, Jonathan had a long lead before Popov changed his strategy by playing with more patience. This made the match close again until the final points.

“When the point was 15-8, he started to be more patient and not rush. In fact, I became a bit passive and made several mistakes. This made him get up and this is a correction for tomorrow’s match, so he can be consistent until the end,” Jonatan said.

Looking ahead to today’s semi-finals, Jonathan said the main focus will be on regaining his fitness before turning his attention back to match strategy. He also hoped to meet Thai badminton player Kunlavut Vitidsarn again to test the evaluation results of the previous meeting.

“The focus now is recovery first, enjoying the atmosphere, then focusing on tomorrow,” Jonathan said.

However, this plan did not materialize after the elimination of Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the quarter-finals. The second seeded Thai lost to Loh Kean Yew with a score of 21-14, 15-21, 17-21, which also confirmed Jonatan’s meeting with Loh Kean Yew in the semifinals.