India made an rousing start to their Badminton Asia Team Championships 2026 campaign in Qingdao, the People’s Republic of China, on Wednesday, with the women’s team sweeping past Myanmar 5-0 in their opening group tie while the men edged past Singapore 3-2.
India women, defending champions, were already without two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu due to injury heading into the tournament and suffered another setback when Unnati Hooda, a member of their title-winning squad in 2024, was ruled out at the last minute with a niggle.
However, world No. 42 Tanvi Sharma, the highest-ranked singles player in the squad and a member of India’s title-winning team, set the tone with a 21-13, 21-16 victory over World No. 123 Thet Htar Thuzar in a match that lasted just over half an hour.
Malvika Bansod and Rakshitha Ramraj ensured India maintained their stranglehold on the tie with comfortable wins. Ramraj got the better of Eaint Chit Phoo with a 21-12, 21-6 scoreline while Bansod registered a 21-9, 21-12 victory over Lin Lin Htet.
India were equally dominant in the doubles, with Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra and Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand logging victories.
Priya and Shruti defeated Su Latt-Thet Htar Thuzar 21-15, 21-16 before Treesa and Gayatri wrapped up the tie with a dominant win 21-8, 21-6 over Lin Lin Htet and Eaint Chit Phoo.
The Indian women’s team will face fourth seeds and runners-up from the previous edition, Thailand, in their final Group Y encounter on Thursday.
The Indian men’s badminton team also won its first Group C tie against Singapore but with a slender 3-2 margin.
Paris 2024 semifinalist Lakshya Sen, 12th in the men’s singles badminton rankings, endured a narrow defeat in the opening rubber, going down 21-16, 19-21, 21-16 to world No. 10 Loh Kean Yew, his fourth loss in 11 meetings against the Singaporean.
India hit back through their top men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who cruised past Wesley Koh and Junsuke Kubo 21-10, 21-8 to level the tie.
The momentum then swung firmly in India’s favour when Ayush Shetty outclassed Jason Teh 21-17, 21-15 to help his team take the lead.
Singapore, however, ensured that the tie went down to the wire as Nge Joo Jie and Donovan Willard Wee rallied to edge Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K 8-21, 23-21, 22-20.
With all to play for in the final match of the tie, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth rose to the occasion and defeated Joel Koh 21-15, 21-16 to give India the win.
The Indian men’s team will play fourth seeds Japan in their next Group C tie on Thursday.
