Tokyo, July 15 (IANS) India’s hopes in the men’s singles draw at the Japan Open 2026 came to an abrupt end on Wednesday after Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty were both eliminated in their opening-round matches at the BWF Super 750 tournament, while Unnati Hooda also exited the women’s singles competition.

Lakshya, seeded among the tournament’s leading contenders by virtue of his world No. 14 ranking, was unable to counter home favourite Koki Watanabe, who secured a comfortable 21-16, 21-14 victory in front of the Japanese crowd at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

The Indian found himself chasing the contest from the outset as Watanabe established commanding leads at the mid-game intervals in both sets. Despite attempting to claw his way back, Lakshya failed to shift the momentum and the Japanese shuttler wrapped up the match in just 38 minutes. The defeat also handed Watanabe his third victory in seven meetings against the Indian.

Ayush Shetty came significantly closer to extending his stay in the tournament but eventually fell short against world No. 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in a three-game battle.

The Thai star edged a tightly contested opening game 21-19 after holding a slender advantage for much of the set. Ayush responded impressively in the second game, recovering from four match points before prevailing 25-23 in a tense finish to force the decider.

However, the momentum proved short-lived as Kunlavut regained control in the third game, closing out a 21-15 victory to improve his head-to-head record against Ayush to 2-1.

India’s challenge also suffered another setback in the women’s singles draw, where Unnati Hooda was beaten by Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu-Hsun despite taking the second game. After dropping the opener 21-16, Unnati fought back to level the contest with a 21-16 win before Huang sealed the deciding game 21-15 to advance.

With the latest exits, India’s campaign in the singles events has narrowed considerably. Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu remains the country’s only surviving singles player in Tokyo, while mixed doubles pair Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila are also still in contention.

India had already lost both of its men’s doubles combinations on Tuesday after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, along with MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan, bowed out in the opening round, with the former pair sustaining another injury.

–IANS

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