India’s campaign at the Canada Open 2026 got off to a challenging start as seven out of nine singles players were eliminated in the opening round. Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth had to retire due to injury while trailing 11-10 against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in a highly anticipated match.
After Srikanth’s departure, India’s chances in the men’s singles draw diminished further as Saneeth Dayanand and Sankar Subramanian also bowed out in their initial matches. Third seed Yudai Okimoto of Japan defeated Saneeth convincingly in straight games, while Sankar Subramanian lost to South Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin in a three-game battle.
In the women’s singles category, Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap brought some relief by advancing to the second round with impressive wins. Tanya defeated USA’s Disha Gupta and will now face Japan’s Riko Gunji, while Aakarshi comfortably beat France’s Anna Tatranova and is set to play against fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the United States.
Despite these victories, the rest of India’s women’s singles players faced early exits from the tournament. Devika Sihag, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Rakshitha Ramraj, and Anmol Kharb all fell short in their matches, ending their campaigns at the Canada Open.
India’s men’s doubles representatives, Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana, were also eliminated early from the BWF Super 300 event. With only Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap remaining in contention, India’s hopes now rely solely on the women’s singles duo as the tournament progresses to the next round.
