Rounak Chouhan emerged as the lone bright spot for India on the opening day of the Taipei Open 2026 badminton tournament, winning two qualifying matches to secure a place in the men’s singles main draw in Chinese Taipei on Tuesday.
The world No. 66Â Indian badminton player, seeded second in the qualifying draw, opened his campaign with a 21-15, 21-11 win over 83rd-ranked Joshua Nguyen of Canada.Â
He then beat Chinese Taipei’s world No. 113 Kuo Kuan Lin 24-22, 21-10 to book his place in the BWF Super 300 badminton tournament’s main draw, where he will join the likes of Asian Games bronze medallist HS Prannoy and Tharun Mannepalli.
The rest of India’s challenge in the men’s singles qualifiers ended in the opening round.Â
Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar lost 21-10, 21-11 to Japan’s top-seeded Riki Takei, Sankar Subramanian went down 21-17, 21-10 against USA’s Garret Tan, while Tushar Suveer suffered a 19-21, 21-12, 21-16 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Kuan Lin.
In the women’s singles qualifiers, Aakarshi Kashyap bowed out after a 21-15, 21-19 loss to Malaysia’s Kisona Selvaduray.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/taipei-open-2026-badminton-day-1-report
