Though the Indian teams suffered losses in their final group matches on Thursday, they still head into the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2026 in Qingdao, People’s Republic of China. Defending champions Indian women will take on hosts China in the quarterfinals. The men will be up against the Republic of Korea.
Having qualified for the quarterfinal with a match to spare in the group stage, the Indian men’s team rested Paris 2024 semifinalist Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth against Japan. India put up a strong show before going down 3-2 against Japan and finished second in Group C.
Playing the first singles against Kenta Nishimoto, Ayush Shetty gave India the winning start as he thoroughly dominated the third game to win 21-18, 15-21, 21-11.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty doubled India’s advantage with a 21-18, 15-21, 21-12 win over Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
However, the momentum changed after HS Prannoy lost 21-17, 21-11 against Yushi Tanaka.
Japan went on to win the second men’s doubles and third singles rubbers to pocket the top spot in the group.
Hariharan Amsakarunan and Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy lost 21-14, 21-10 to Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi. Tharun Mannepalli went down 12-21, 21-14, 21-11 against Koki Watanabe.
The women’s team also lost by an identical margin against Thailand. The India women could not take advantage of the winning momentum generated by Tanvi Sharma and the women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
Tanvi, playing the first singles in the absence of former world champion PV Sindhu, kept her nerves to beat world No. 16 Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-14, 17-21, 21-18 in an hour and three minutes.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa and Gayatri then quelled the challenge from Tidapron Kleebyeesun and Nattamon Laisuan 21-14, 20-22, 21-11 to hand India a 2-0 lead.
However, Rakshitha Sree and the experienced Malvika Bansod lost their singles matches, and the combination of Tanisha Crasto and Shruti Mishra went down 21-19, 14-21, 15-21 against Hathaithip Mijad and Napapakorn Tungkasatan in the second doubles.
