New Delhi: India’s Lakshya Sen fought back from a game down to defeat Austria’s Collins Valentine Filimon in the opening round of the BWF World Championships 2026 in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The 14th-seeded Indian defeated world No. 128 Filimon 16-21, 21-8, 21-4 in 45 minutes at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
A bronze medallist at the 2021 World Badminton Championships, Sen will next face USA’s world No. 92 Garret Tan in the round of 32, according to olympics.com.
Earlier in the day, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand advanced to the women’s doubles pre-quarterfinals with a 21-15, 21-12 win over USA’s 16th seeds Lauren Lam and Allison Lee.
The world No. 39 Indian pair upset the 17th-ranked Americans in 49 minutes. Jolly and Gopichand started strongly, leading 11-6 at the first-game interval before closing it out 21-15. They maintained control in the second game, moving 15-9 ahead before completing a straight-games win.
Unnati Hooda also progressed to the women’s singles round of 32, beating Myanmar’s Thet Htar Thuzar 22-20, 21-16 in 40 minutes. The 18-year-old Indian shuttler will next meet Canada’s world No. 13 Michelle Li.
However, it was not a good day for several other Indian pairs. Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi were knocked out of the women’s doubles, losing 21-7, 21-14 to ninth seeds Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria in 39 minutes.
In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde went down 20-22, 21-19, 21-17 to Canada’s Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai after a match lasting over an hour.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh also exited the mixed doubles event, losing a tightly contested match 16-21, 30-29, 24-22 to Türkiye’s Emre Sönmez and Yasemen Bektaş in one hour and 11 minutes.
This marks the first time India is hosting the BWF World Championships since 2009. The 30th edition of the tournament will run from August 17 to 23. India have won 15 medals at the World Championships so far and have claimed at least one medal at every edition since 2011.
