Jakarta: Back in the top 10 of BWF world rankings, PV Sindhu kicked off her Indonesia Open 2026 with a 25-23, 21-16 win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan at the Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The former world champion had to push herself, finally winning with scores of 25-23 and 21-16 in 51 minutes. She won the closely contested first game with her aggressive playing style and carried that energy into the second game to secure a straight-sets victory.
Sindhu now faces a tough challenge in the second round, where she is likely to meet reigning Olympic champion and world No. 1 An Se-young. Sindhu trails 0-9 in their head-to-head record and lost to the Korean in the Singapore Open quarterfinals last week.
Also advancing to the next round was the men’s doubles combination of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun, who registered a straight games victory over Malaysia’s 2016 Olympic medallist Tan Wee Kiong and his current partner Nur Mohd Azriyn.
India’s ace shuttler Sindhu, who entered the world top-10 for the first time since 2023, opened her campaign with an 11th successive win against the Thailand shuttler. Sindhu now leads the head-to-head record against Busanan 21-1. She will now face the winner of the match between top seed An Se Young of Korea and Neslihan Arin of Turkey.
Later, Hariharan and Arjun outplayed the experienced Malaysian duo 21-18, 21-10 in just 33 minutes.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen lost to home favourite Alwi Farhan 21-19, 21-16. Alwi had defeated World No 1 Shi Yu Qi at the Singapore Open last week.
On the other hand, it was a tough day for India’s doubles teams. The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, playing together for the first time in over two months, lost 14-21, 12-21 to the Indonesian team of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari. In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were beaten 11-21, 10-21 by the sixth-seeded Chinese pair of Guo Xin Wa and Chen Fang Hui.
(IANS)
