NEW DELHI: India’s PV Sindhu saw her impressive campaign at the Australian Badminton Open 2026 come to an end after suffering a straight-games defeat to reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the women’s singles semi-finals on Saturday.
The former world champion and current world No. 10 went down 22-20, 21-12 to world No. 3 Yamaguchi in a 43-minute contest, falling short of a place in her first final of the 2026 season.
The result marked Sindhu’s second semi-final appearance on the BWF World Tour this year. Earlier in January, she had reached the last four of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament before losing to China’s Wang Zhiyi, according to reports.
The win improved Yamaguchi’s head-to-head record against Sindhu to 14 victories in 29 meetings. The two players share a long-standing rivalry, with Sindhu famously defeating the Japanese shuttler in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on her way to winning a second Olympic medal.
Sindhu’s exit also brought an end to India’s campaign at the BWF Super 500 tournament. India’s hopes in the men’s doubles had ended on Friday when MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan retired during their quarter-final match against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Cheng Kuan and Liu Kuang-Heng.
Indian shuttlers will next compete at the Macau Open Super 300 tournament, scheduled to begin next week.
