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India's challenge in the men's singles draw 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 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Wednesday.
World No. 14 Lakshya Sen was outplayed by Japan's Koki Watanabe, going down 21-16, 21-14 in a match that lasted just 38 minutes. The Indian struggled to find his rhythm throughout the contest, trailing 11-6 and 11-5 at the mid-game intervals of the two games before Watanabe comfortably sealed victory in straight games, according to Olympics.com. The defeat marked Lakshya's third loss in seven career meetings against the world No. 17 Japanese shuttler. Ayush Shetty, meanwhile, produced a spirited display against world No. 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand before bowing out in a hard-fought three-game contest. The Indian went down 19-21, 25-23, 15-21 against the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist. The opening game was closely contested, with Kunlavut holding a narrow 11-9 lead at the interval before edging the game despite Ayush fighting back to level the scores at 19-19. Ayush responded strongly in the second game, taking a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. The Thai star later earned four match points, but the Indian showed remarkable resilience by saving all four before clinching the game 25-23 to force a decider. However, Ayush could not sustain the momentum in the third game as Kunlavut regained control 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 competition as Unnati Hooda was eliminated after a 16-21, 21-16, 21-15 defeat to Huang Yu-Hsun of Chinese Taipei in the opening round. With the latest exits, India's men's singles campaign at the Japan Open has come to a close. Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu remains the country's lone representative in women's singles after advancing to the second round on Tuesday. India's hopes in doubles now rest with the mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila, who also progressed to the second round. Earlier, men's doubles pairs Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and MR Arjun-Hariharan Amsakarunan exited the tournament in the opening round. (ANI)
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