Rounak Chouhan qualifies for main draw at Taipei Open 2026; India’s sole qualifier
Taipei Open 2026 badminton: Rounak Chouhan advances to main draw on tough day for India
Taipei Open 2026 badminton: Rounak Chouhan advances to main draw on tough day for India
The rest of the Indian badminton players in the qualifying round could not make it to the main draw of the BWF Super 300 tournament.
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. 66 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.
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.
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.
India’s lone men’s doubles qualifying pair, Arjun Reddy Pochana and Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu, were beaten 21-5, 21-8 by Chinese Taipei’s Bo-Yuan Chen and Ming Che Lu.
In the women’s doubles qualifiers, Aditi Bhatt and Shravani Walekar rallied from a game down to beat Chinese Taipei’s Yu Tong Chen and Yu Jung Lin 20-22, 21-18, 21-13 in the opening round.
However, their campaign ended in the qualifying final following a 21-17, 21-16 defeat to another Chinese Taipei pair, Tsai Ruei Lin and Wang Yi Zhen.
India’s mixed doubles challenge also came to an early end, with all three pairs - Dhruv Rawat-Maneesha K, Ishaan Bhatnagar-Shruti Mishra and Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram-Radhika Sharma - bowing out in the opening round of the main draw.
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