India’s top men’s doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a surprise first-round exit at the Denmark Open 2026 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, fifth in the men’s doubles badminton rankings, lost 12-21, 21-15, 21-19 to the world No. 37 pair of He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu of the People’s Republic of China.
PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen had also crashed out of the BWF Super 750 tournament in the first round on Tuesday.
Satwik-Chirag made a confident start, dominating the opening game, but the momentum shifted in the second as He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu raced to an 11-4 lead at the interval before forcing a decider.
The final game was closely contested, with the Chinese pair holding a slender 11-10 lead at the interval before maintaining their advantage to seal the win and send the Indian duo packing.
This was Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s first defeat in four meetings against He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu.
Elsewhere, Ayush Shetty also bowed out in the first round of the men’s singles after going down 21-11, 13-21, 21-10 against Alwi Farhan of Indonesia.
In the first game, Ayush Shetty was slow off the blocks and soon found himself trailing 11-4 as Alwi Farhan wrapped up the opener without any hiccups.
The Indian badminton player then fought back in the second game as he led 11-8 at the interval and conceded just five more points to take the match into a decider.
However, the deciding game followed a similar pattern to the first, with Ayush Shetty trailing 11-3 at the interval and never managing to recover as Alwi Farhan sealed the contest and booked a spot in the next round.
Ayush Shetty’s defeat against Alwi Farhan was his fourth in six matches against the Indonesian.
His exit also means that Kidambi Srikanth is the sole Indian left in the men’s singles.
Unnati Hooda’s campaign also ended in the women’s singles first round after a 23-21, 16-21, 21-16 defeat to China’s Han Qianxi.
However, Ashmita Chaliha entered the second round after beating Bulgaria’s Kaloyana Nalbantova 21-18, 22-20.
Devika Sihag also bowed out after losing 21-13, 21-14 to eighth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand kept India’s women’s doubles hopes alive, beating Chinese Taipei’s Chen Yan Fei and Hsieh Pei-shan 22-20, 21-14. Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda went down 21-14, 21-14 to sixth seeds Bao Li Jing and Cao Zi Han of China.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/denmark-open-2026-badminton-india-day-2-report
