Taipei, Aug 1 (IANS) Tanvi Sharma continued her impressive run at the Taipei Open 2026 by storming into the women’s singles final with a commanding straight-games victory, keeping India’s title hopes alive at the BWF Super 300 tournament.
At the Taipei Arena on Saturday, world number 34 beat the fifth seed and home favourite Huang Yu-hsun 21-17, 21-11, completing the victory in just 33 minutes and thus securing her spot in the final on Sunday against Nguyen Thuy Linh from Vietnam.
In contrast to her quarterfinal match against Thailand’s fourth seed Supanida Katethong, in which she had to recover from a setback during the match to win in three games, Tanvi was in full control during the semifinal and kept the home crowd from having any chance of a comeback, concluding the match in straight games with a confident all-round performance.
The last achievement marks a major milestone in the young player’s swift ascent over the last two years. As part of India’s gold-medal-winning team at the 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships, Tanvi has gradually built up a reputation on the international scene. In 2025 she came in second at both the Odisha Masters Super 100 and the Guwahati Masters Super 100, and had also won the Bonn International in 2024 and the Denmark Challenge in 2025.
India, however, came very close to having an all-Indian final in the women’s singles event after Unnati Hooda was eliminated in the semifinals. The teenager lost 15-21, 18-21 to Nguyen Thuy Linh, the sixth seed, who will therefore play against Tanvi for the title. The fact that Unnati had been defeated put an end to the possibility of an all-Indian final which had seemed likely after both players had reached the last four.
The men’s singles campaign concluded on a disappointing day, Kiran George—India’s final player left after HS Prannoy’s exit in the round of 16—being beaten 21-12, 21-10 by Japan’s fourth seed Yudai Okimoto in the quarter-finals.
The difficulty that India experienced in the doubles events had already ended earlier in the week, since Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu were eliminated in the first round of the men’s doubles event.
–IANS
hs/
