India’s HS Prannoy suffered a first-round exit from the Korea Open 2026 badminton tournament after losing to home favourite and Asian Games bronze medallist Yoo Tae-bin at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu on Wednesday.
Prannoy, a World Championships bronze medallist and 38th in the badminton rankings, went down 21-23, 15-21 in 47 minutes in the men’s singles round of 32 match of the BWF Super 500 tournament.
HS Prannoy was India’s sole representative in the men’s singles badminton main draw after recently crowned Hylo Open champion Lakshya Sen withdrew from the tournament.
The defeat marked Prannoy’s third consecutive first-round exit on the BWF World Tour this year following similar results at the Hylo Open and Arctic Open.
The former world No. 6 Indian shuttler has struggled for form this season, progressing beyond the second round just once in 15 BWF tournaments.
His best run came at the Vietnam Open in September, where he reached the semi-finals of the BWF Super 100 tournament.
In Wednesday’s match, Prannoy recovered from a 12-7 deficit in the opening game to take a 19-16 lead. However, Yoo Tae-bin fought back to level the score at 19-19 before edging the game 23-21.
The South Korean carried the momentum into the second game, opening up an 8-3 advantage before closing out the contest.
Meanwhile, Anmol Kharb advanced to the women’s singles second round after beating Canada’s Rachel Chan 21-19, 21-18 in 38 minutes.
Anmol, who reached the semi-finals of the Hylo Open last week, will face Japan’s second seed Akane Yamaguchi in the round of 16 on Thursday.
India’s Tanvi Sharma, who won her maiden BWF World Tour title at the Taipei Open earlier this year, also progressed to the second round after beating Japan’s Manami Suizu 21-16, 12-21, 21-17 in one hour and 12 minutes.
Tanvi will face the winner of the first-round match between Japan’s fifth seed Hina Akechi and the People’s Republic of China’s Xu Wenjing in the round of 16 on Thursday.
In mixed doubles, India’s Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K lost 22-20, 12-21, 22-24 against China’s seventh-seeded pair of Zhu Yi Jun and Li Qian in a closely contested 58-minute-long encounter.
On Tuesday, India’s women’s doubles pair of Ritika Thaker and Sonali Singh withdrew ahead of their first-round match against Australia’s Laudya Chelsea Griselda and Nozomi Shimizu.
The men’s doubles combination of Arjun Reddy Pochana and Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu also failed to make it past the qualification round.
The Korea Open 2026 badminton tournament concludes on Sunday.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/korea-open-2026-badminton-day-2-india-results
