India’s PV Sindhu cruised into the women’s singles final of the Japan Open 2026 badminton tournament after her semi-final opponent, the People’s Republic of China’s Chen Yufei, retired hurt midway through the second game on Saturday.
Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, currently 12th in the badminton rankings, was leading the match 21-19, 15-10 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium before Chen Yufei, the world No. 4 and a former Olympic champion, withdrew due to a hamstring injury.
The Indian badminton player will face world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the final on Sunday.
A three-time world champion, Yamaguchi beat Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani, currently ranked sixth, in the other semi-final clash.
This will be PV Sindhu’s first final appearance on the BWF World Tour since winning the Syed Modi International Super 300 title in December 2024. It will also be the Indian shuttler’s first-ever title clash in a BWF Super 750 event.
Having come into the match trailing Chen Yufei 8-6 in the head-to-head record, Sindhu raced off the blocks and dominated her better-ranked Chinese opponent to race to a 16-11 lead.
However, Tokyo 2020 champion Chen Yufei, who had beaten Sindhu in four straight matches before Saturday’s clash, responded and drew level at 18-all. Sindhu, though, kept calm under pressure to take the opening game.
The second game saw Sindhu lead from the start before Chen Yufei decided she couldn’t continue and handed Sindhu the walkover win after a 44-minute-long affair.
Before this, Sindhu’s last victory over Chen Yufei came in the 2019 BWF World Championships semi-finals – a tournament the Indian ended up winning.
The victory also made PV Sindhu the first Indian shuttler to make the final at the Japan Open.
Sindhu is the last remaining Indian at the Japan Open this year.
Both Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty lost their opening-round matches while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty were forced to retire hurt during their opener.
India’s doubles challenge had ended in the pre-quarters with Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto exiting the mixed event.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/japan-open-2026-badminton-india-semi-final-report-pv-sindhu
