Ontario, July 2 (IANS) India’s campaign at the Canada Open 2026 endured a difficult opening day as seven of the nine singles players crashed out in the first round, with former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth’s run ending prematurely due to injury at the Markham Pan Am Centre on Thursday.

Facing Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in one of the marquee men’s singles contests, Srikanth was forced to retire while trailing 11-10 in the opening game, bringing an abrupt end to a contest that had promised to be closely fought. The setback came just a week after the Indian had defeated Lee en route to finishing runner-up at the US Open. The result also extended Lee’s head-to-head advantage to 6-3 over Srikanth.

India’s hopes in the men’s singles draw quickly faded after Srikanth’s exit, with Saneeth Dayanand and Sankar Subramanian also bowing out in their opening-round matches.

Third seed Yudai Okimoto of Japan proved too strong for Saneeth, securing a dominant 21-7, 21-11 victory in straight games.

Sankar Subramanian showed early promise by taking the opening game against South Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin, but was unable to maintain the momentum, eventually going down 19-21, 21-15, 21-15 in three games.

The women’s singles draw offered the only bright spots for the Indian contingent as Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap progressed to the second round with convincing victories.

Tanya overcame USA’s Disha Gupta 21-16, 21-18 to book a meeting with Japan’s Riko Gunji in the round of 16.

Aakarshi, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, also advanced comfortably after dispatching France’s Anna Tatranova 21-14, 21-12. She will now face fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the United States for a place in the quarter-finals.

The remainder of India’s women’s singles campaign, however, ended on the opening day.

World No. 33 Devika Sihag, India’s highest-ranked women’s singles player in the tournament, suffered a straight-games defeat, while Shriyanshi Valishetty also exited without taking a game.

Rakshitha Ramraj stretched Canada’s Rachel Chan but lost 15-21, 21-14, 21-15 after surrendering the opening-game advantage.

Anmol Kharb fought hard against top seed Michelle Li, recovering to claim the second game after saving match points, but the Canadian eventually sealed a 21-6, 24-26, 21-13 victory to end the Indian teenager’s challenge.

India had also lost its only men’s doubles representatives before the singles action gathered pace, with Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana making an early exit from the BWF Super 300 tournament.

With just Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap left in contention, India’s hopes at the Canada Open now rest solely on the women’s singles pair as the tournament heads into the second round.

–IANS

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