Jakarta, June 2: In a thrilling start to the Indonesia Open 2026, Indian shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan with scores of 25-23, 21-16 on Tuesday.
Playing at the Istora Senayan Stadium, the former world champion faced a tough challenge but ultimately secured victory after a 51-minute match. Sindhu showcased her aggressive playing style, winning the first game in a close contest and maintaining that momentum to clinch the second game in straight sets.
Sindhu now faces a daunting challenge in the second round, where she is set to compete against current Olympic champion and world number one, An Se-young. Sindhu trails 0-9 in their head-to-head record and lost to the Korean player in the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open last week.
Another pair advancing to the next round includes men’s doubles duo Hariharan Amaskarunan and M.R. Arjun, who defeated Malaysia’s 2016 Olympic medalist Tan Wee Kiong and his current partner Noor Mohammad Azrin in straight games.
Sindhu, who has re-entered the top 10 players in the world for the first time since 2023, began her campaign with an impressive 11th consecutive victory over the Thai shuttler. Her head-to-head record against Busanan now stands at 21-1. She will face the winner of the match between Korea’s top seed An Se-young and Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit in the next round.
Later, Hariharan and Arjun triumphed over the experienced Malaysian pair in just 33 minutes, winning 21-18, 21-10.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen faced defeat against local favorite Alvi Farhan, losing 21-19, 21-16. Alvi had previously defeated the world number one, Shi Yuqi, at the Singapore Open last week.
On the other hand, it was a challenging day for India’s doubles teams. The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, playing together for the first time in over two months, lost to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Melisa Trias Puspitasari with scores of 14-21, 12-21. In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were defeated by the sixth-seeded Chinese pair Guo Xinwa and Chen Fanghui, with scores of 11-21, 10-21.
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