Third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a second-round exit from the India Open 2026 badminton tournament after going down in an epic three-game battle on Thursday.
World No. 3 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 25-27, 23-21, 21-19 to Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita, 22nd in the men’s doubles badminton rankings, at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
In the opener, Satwik-Chirag led 11-7 at the interval before the Japanese shuttlers fought back and took the game into a tie-break after the Indian pair failed to convert two game points.
Both pairs had opportunities to win the tie-break, but eventually it was Satwik-Chirag who managed to hold their nerve and take the opener.
The second game saw Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita lead 11-7 at the interval, but this time, it was Satwik-Chirag who battled their way back and forced a tie-break, which the Indians ultimately lost.
Satwik-Chirag also managed to push the decider deep before Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita converted their very first match point to seal victory.
MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan also lost their men’s doubles second round match 21-15, 21-15 against Paris 2024 silver medallists Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of the People’s Republic of China.
Meanwhile, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth lost 21-14, 17-21, 21-17 to fifth seed Christo Popov of France.
Olympian Christo Popov dominated the first game, leading 11-5 at the interval before comfortably wrapping up the opener.
Kidambi Srikanth mounted a strong fightback in the second game, taking an 11-7 lead at the interval and then closing it out to force a decider.
The decider saw Christo Popov race to an early 4-0 lead and then built on his advantage to open an 11-5 cushion at the mid-game break.
Srikanth attempted to claw his way back into the contest, but the Frenchman’s six-point lead at the interval proved decisive as he kept the Indian badminton player at bay to seal victory and progress to the next round.
This was Srikanth’s first loss in three matches against Christo Popov.
World Championships bronze medallist H. S. Prannoy was also ousted in the second round after going down 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 against former world champion and eighth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
However, Lakshya Sen kept India’s men’s singles challenge alive with a 21-19, 21-10 win over Olympian Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
Elsewhere, Malvika Bansod’s run in the women’s singles came to an end after a 21-18, 21-15 defeat against world No. 5 Han Yue of China.
Bansod’s exit marked the end of India’s women’s singles campaign at the BWF Super 750 tournament after two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Tanvi Sharma lost their respective first-round matches on Wednesday.
India’s women’s doubles campaign also ended after Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a gruelling 20-22, 24-22, 23-21 defeat to the seventh-seeded Chinese duo Li Yijing and Luo Xumin.
