Tokyo, July 15: India’s hopes at the ‘Japan Open 2026’ came to an end on Wednesday as both men’s singles players were eliminated. In the ‘BWF Super 750’ tournament, Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty both faced defeats, while Unnati Hooda also exited the women’s singles competition.
World number 14 Lakshya Sen could not overcome local player Koki Watanabe at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Watanabe won the match decisively with scores of 21-16, 21-14.
From the start, the Indian player struggled. Watanabe established a significant lead at the mid-game interval in both sets. Despite attempts to rally, Lakshya could not change the match’s momentum, and the Japanese shuttler secured victory in just 38 minutes. This marked Watanabe’s third win against an Indian player in seven encounters.
On the other hand, Ayush Shetty came close to staying in the tournament but ultimately lost in a hard-fought three-game match against world number 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
The Thai star took the tightly contested first game 21-19, maintaining a slight lead for most of the set. Ayush made a remarkable comeback in the second game, overcoming four match points to win 25-23, pushing the match to a decisive third game.
However, the momentum did not last long. Kunlavut regained control in the third game, winning 21-15. With this victory, Kunlavut’s head-to-head record against Ayush improved to 2-1.
India faced another setback in the women’s singles draw as Unnati Hooda was defeated by Taiwan’s Huang Yu-Hsun. After losing the first game 21-16, Unnati fought back to win the second game 21-16, leveling the match. However, Huang clinched the decisive game 21-15 to advance to the next round.
In the singles events of this competition, only PV Sindhu remains for India. The mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila are still in contention, while both men’s doubles teams from India were eliminated on Tuesday.
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