An injury forced former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth to exit the Canada Open 2026 even as the Indian shuttlers suffered a disappointing day with seven of the nine players exiting at the first hurdle on Wednesday.
Competing at the Markham Pan Am Centre in Ontario, Srikanth retired injured while trailing 11-10 against Olympic medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the men’s singles opening round. Srikanth has now lost six out of his nine matches against the Malaysian. He had beaten Lee Zii Jia at the US Open last week on way to a runners-up finish.
Srikanth’s exit was followed by first-round defeats for compatriots Saneeth Dayanand and Sankar Subramanian, ending India’s men’s singles campaign at the BWF Super badminton 300 event.
Saneeth Dayanand went down 21-7, 21-11 to Japan’s third seed Yudai Okimoto, while Sankar Subramanian squandered the opening game to lose 19-21, 21-15, 21-15 to the Republic of Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin.
Srikanth falls short of ending 9-year title drought as he loses to Su Li Yang in final
Meanwhile, Devika Sihag, Rakshitha Ramraj, Anmol Kharb and Shriyanshi Valishetty lost their respective opening round contests. Devika Sihag, India’s top-ranked women’s singles player in Canada at world No. 33, and Shriyanshi Valishetty lost in straight games.
Rakshitha Ramraj went down 15-21, 21-14, 21-15 against Rachel Chan of Canada, while Anmol Kharb was beaten 21-6, 24-26, 21-13 by home favourite and top seed Michelle Li.
Earlier, Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana – the only Indian men’s doubles challenge in Canada – were also ousted in the opening day of the tournament.
Tanya, Aakarshi brighten up the day
In the women’s singles event, Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap picked up India’s only two wins of the day. Tanya Hemnath beat the USA’s Disha Gupta 21-16, 21-18 to set up a second-round encounter with Japan’s Riko Gunji.
Aakarshi Kashyap also eased to a comfortable 21-14, 21-12 win over Anna Tatranova of France. The Indian badminton player will take on fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the USA in the second round.
Pic: BWF
