Copenhagen [Denmark]: India's string of poor performances at the ongoing Denmark Open 2026 badminton tournament continued as the popular men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also suffered a shocking first round exit on Wednesday.
The fifth-ranked pair went down to the world number 37 pair of He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu from China by 12-21, 21-15, 21-19, as per Olympics.com.
Earlier, PV Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medalist and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen also suffered first-round losses on Tuesday in the BWF Super 750 tournament. Satwik-Chirag won the first game easily, but in the second game, the Chinese pair took an 11-4 lead at the interval and eventually forced a decider. The final game was close, with China holding a slender 11-10 lead. But they managed to maintain the lead by two points towards the ending, making them slip to their first loss in four meetings against them.
Also, Ayush Shetty also suffered a first round loss to Alwi Farhan of Indonesia by 21-11, 13-21, 21-10. Alwi wrapped the first game easily while in the second game, Ayush took a lead of 11-8 at the interval and conceded just five more later. In the decider, Ayush once again trailed massively and never got back on track. Ayush registered his fourth loss in six meetings to Alwi.
Kidambi Srikanth is the only Indian left in the men's singles competition.
Shifting focus to women's competition, Unnati Hooda also ended her campaign in the first round to China’s Han Qianxi by 23-21, 16-21, 21-16 Meanwhile, Ashmita Chaliha and Devika Sihag will be in women’s singles action later and pairings of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will also be competing in the women’s doubles. (ANI)
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