NEW DELHI: India continued to make its presence felt at the Australian Badminton Open 2026 in Sydney, with MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan leading the doubles charge into the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
The Indian duo, building on their Indonesia Open Super 1000 quarter-final run last week, produced a controlled performance to defeat Americans Arden Quan Lee and Stanley Xing 21-13, 21-13 in their opening-round clash at Olympic Boulevard.
In contrast, India’s second men’s doubles pair, Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana, could not progress further, according to reports. The pair went down 21-15, 21-15 against the home combination of Kanki Igawa and Ooi Ye Hern, ending India’s depth challenge in the category.
With that result, Arjun and Amsakarunan remain the sole Indian representatives in men’s doubles at the event.
India’s top-ranked pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are absent from the tournament. Satwik is currently recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in Indonesia. The duo is expected to return later in the season with a focus on defending their Asian Games title at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
In men’s singles, Saneeth Dayanand emerged as one of India’s brighter stories of the day. Making his Super 500 main-draw breakthrough, the world No. 67 impressed in qualifying with back-to-back wins.
He first overcame Australia’s Karono 21-17, 21-15 before outplaying Malaysia’s Ming Hong Lim 21-9, 21-16 to secure his place in the main draw.
Dayanand now faces China’s Hu Zhe An in the round of 32.
Elsewhere, Manraj Singh came close but fell short of joining him. After a strong opening win over Australia’s Ephraim Stephen Sam 21-6, 21-15, he was stopped by Malaysia’s Eogene Ewe 21-11, 21-18 in the final qualifying round.
In women’s singles, PV Sindhu, ranked 11th in the world, is set to begin her campaign on Wednesday against Peru’s Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar. Malvika Bansod will also open her campaign on the same day.
