India’s men’s singles campaign at the Japan Open 2026 came to an abrupt end after both Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty fell in their opening-round matches at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Wednesday. As a result, the country’s singles hopes now rest on PV Sindhu alone.
Lakshya Sen Falls to Home Favorite Watanabe
World No. 14 Lakshya Sen lost 21-16, 21-14 to Japan’s Koki Watanabe, the world No. 17, in front of a supportive home crowd. Sen struggled throughout, trailing 11-6 and 11-5 at the mid-game intervals in both sets, and he was unable to shift the momentum in either game. Consequently, Watanabe wrapped up the win in just 38 minutes. Even so, the defeat marked only Watanabe’s third victory in seven career meetings against Sen, meaning the Indian still leads their overall head-to-head record.
Ayush Shetty Pushes World No. 2 to the Brink
Ayush Shetty, meanwhile, put up a much stiffer fight against world No. 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand before eventually bowing out 19-21, 25-23, 15-21. The opening game stayed tight throughout, and Shetty leveled it at 19-19 late, but the Paris 2024 silver medallist edged ahead to close it out. In the second game, Shetty built an 11-10 interval lead before Vitidsarn surged to four match points. However, Shetty saved all four and held his nerve to force a decider. He could not carry that momentum into the final game, though, as Vitidsarn closed out the match for his second win in three meetings between the pair.
Unnati Hooda also exited the women’s singles draw, falling 16-21, 21-16, 21-15 to Huang Yu-Hsun of Chinese Taipei. Her defeat leaves two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and mixed doubles pair Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila as India’s only remaining players at the BWF Super 750 event, after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and MR Arjun-Hariharan Amsakarunan both exited in men’s doubles on Tuesday.
