Star Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen lost in the opening round of China Masters 2026 badminton tournament in Shenzen on Wednesday.
Updated: September 2, 2026, 1:48 PM IST
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Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen(Source: X)
Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Tanvi Sharma secured opening round wins in singles competition at the ongoing China Masters 2026 tournament in Shenzen on Wednesday but top Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen bowed out earlyFormer Commonwealth Games champion and Paris Olympics 2024 semifinalist Lakshya Sen, crashed out in the first round, losing to Victor Lai 14-21, 7-21 in a match that kept going away from him as action progressed.
Several Indian shuttlers are in action on Wednesday at the China Masters, with Kidambi prevailing over Chi Yu Jen 21-16, 21-15 in men’s singles first round17-year-old World Junior Championships silver medalist Tanvi outclassed world number 40th Amalie Schulz with a close straight-games win by 21-16, 21-17.
Read more:
China Masters 2026: Full schedule, Indian players, Prize money and Live streaming details
The Indian contingent also made inroads in mixed doubles competition, with Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto beating the pairing of Tonkid Saeheng-Tonrug Saeheng 21-8, 21-9 in the opening round.
FIRST ROUND EXIT FOR LAKSHYA SEN!
Lakshya lost to World No.9 & Reigning World Medalist Victor Lai 14-21, 7-21 at China Masters
— The Khel India (@TheKhelIndia) September 2, 2026
Devika Sahag also lost to Kaloyana Nalabantova 18-21, 15-21 in the women’s singles first roundIndia’s rising shuttler Unnati Hooda bowed out of the China Masters 2026 in the first round, with a loss to world number 12 Kim Ga-eun in the women’s singles opening round on Tuesday at Shenzhen.
The 18-year-old, ranked world number 25, lost to Kim 21-10, 21-18 in 37 minutes at Shenzhen Sports Centre Gymnasium in ChinaKim raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening game and raised her advantage to 11-3 in the mid-game interval.
The South Korean maintained control after the break and won the first gameIn the second game, Unnati bounced back well, with a 3-0 lead, but Kim managed to move ahead to a 7-5 lead, before Indian took back the lead briefly at 15-14.
Trailing 16-18, Unnati won two points to level the scores, but Kim bounced back to win the final three points and sealed the matchIt was the first head-to-head meeting between Unnati and Kim, with the latter having won the Macau Open title in June and being part of South Africa’s gold medal-winning women’s team at the Asian Games 2023.
Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin-hui stun world champions Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue
Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei pair Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin-hui produced one of the standout results at the China Masters, a BWF Super 750 tournament, defeating newly crowned world champions Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue in straight gamesThe world No48 mixed doubles combination prevailed 23-21, 21-10 in 38 minutes, overturning a late deficit in the opening game before dominating the second to send the French pair out of the tournament.
Liu/Hsu were trailing 19-17 in the first game but recovered to draw level, saved a game point and eventually secured the crucial opener 23-21Having survived that tense finish, the pair returned in the second game with greater freedom and surged to a comprehensive 21-10 victory.
“Knowing they had just become world champions, we naturally really wanted to challenge them; we wanted to beat them even more,” Liu was quoted as saying by BWF.
Hsu pointed to their attacking approach and execution as the key factors behind their impressive performance against the reigning world champions“It was our offence; we did what we were supposed to and executed our game plan wellThat gave us the platform to build on early on,” he added.
– With inputs from ANI and IANS
