Japan Open 2026: Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty exit in first round

India's men's singles campaign at the Japan Open 2026 came to an early end after Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty suffered first-round defeats at the BWF Super 750 tournament in Tokyo on Wednesday.

World No. 14 Lakshya Sen lost 21-16, 21-14 to Japan's Koki Watanabe in a match that lasted just 38 minutes. The Indian trailed at the mid-game interval in both games and was unable to recover, conceding his third defeat in seven meetings against the Japanese shuttler.

Ayush Shetty put up a spirited fight against world No. 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn but eventually went down 21-19, 23-25, 21-15 in a three-game contest.

Ayush pushes world No. 2 before bowing out

The opening game remained closely contested before Kunlavut edged ahead late to take the lead. Ayush responded strongly in the second game, saving four match points before winning 25-23 to force a decider.

However, the momentum did not last as the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist regained control in the final game to complete the victory and improve his head-to-head record against the Indian to 2-1.

India also suffered another setback in the women's singles, with Unnati Hooda losing 21-16, 16-21, 15-21 to Huang Yu-Hsun of Chinese Taipei despite taking the opening game.

The defeats leave two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto as India's only remaining representatives in the tournament.

India had already seen both men's doubles pairs exit on the opening day, with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retiring hurt from their first-round match, while MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan also bowed out.