India’s badminton campaign at the Japan Open 2026 hit trouble early, with Ayush Shetty, Unnati Hooda and Lakshya Sen all losing their opening-round matches in Tokyo on Wednesday (July 15).
Ayush Shetty pushed second seed and former world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn the full distance before losing 19-21, 25-23, 15-21 in an 82-minute men’s singles match. World No. 24 Unnati Hooda went down 21-16, 16-21, 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu-Hsun — the second straight loss to the same opponent.
Lakshya Sen’s exit was quicker. The former All England Championships runner-up lost 16-21, 14-21 to Japan’s Koki Watanabe in just 38 minutes, a result that put Watanabe’s head-to-head record against him at 4-3. The three losses land at an awkward time for Indian badminton. The country hosts the BWF World Championships in New Delhi next month its first time doing so in 17 years.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto are now India’s only players left standing in the USD 950,000 tournament.
Sindhu meets China’s fifth seed Han Yue in the second round. Dhruv and Tanisha play top seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping on Thursday Ayush, 21, had beaten Kunlavut once before, on his way to the Asia Championships final earlier this year. This time the Thai star a three-time world junior champion was the better player.
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Ayush started well, leading 7-4 in the first game, before Kunlavut pulled ahead 12-9. Ayush closed it to 13-12, but Kunlavut moved out to 19-16 and, after Ayush saved three straight points, closed out the game.
The second game stayed close throughout. Kunlavut led early; Ayush went into the interval up 11-10. Kunlavut later held four match points, but Ayush won a long rally under pressure to force a decider. He couldn’t sustain it. Kunlavut opened the third game 8-5, extended it to 14-8, and served out the match to reach round two.