HS Prannoy and Unnati Hooda advance to second round at Taipei Open 2026; Hooda ends five straight first-round exits

Taipei Open 2026 badminton: HS Prannoy, Unnati Hooda reach second round with comfortable wins

Anmol Kharb, Kiran George, Tharun Mannepalli, Tanvi Sharma and Tanya Hemnath also won their respective matches.

India’s HS Prannoy and Unnati Hooda reached the second round of the Taipei Open 2026 badminton tournament with comfortable straight-game wins on Wednesday.

HS Prannoy, seeded seventh, needed just 35 minutes to see off Japan’s Minoru Koga by a 21-11, 21-14 scoreline at the Taipei Arena.

The world No. 36 Indian badminton player has struggled for form this season, crossing the opening round hurdle only thrice in nine BWF World Tour 2026 outings.

However, Prannoy was barely troubled against the 49th-ranked Koga at the BWF Super 300 event, pulling clear in both games without ceding the initiative.

Unnati Hooda was equally comfortable on the adjacent court. The 18-year-old shuttler, 28th in the badminton rankings , brushed aside local hope Wang Pei-Yu 21-12, 21-18 in 39 minutes.

It was a welcome result for the Rohtak teenager, who had come into the badminton tournament on the back of five straight first-round exits.

Tharun Mannepalli, meanwhile, upset eighth seed Jeon Hyeok-jin of the Republic of Korea 21-12, 21-15.

Kiran George rounded off a strong men’s singles showing, easing past home shuttler Wang Po-wei 21-10, 21-18.

There was joy in the women’s singles too. Tanya Hemanth outlasted Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-16, 14-21, 21-16 in a three-game scrap, while Anmol Kharb dug out a similar 21-15, 11-21, 21-19 win over USA’s Isharani Jaiswal after surrendering the middle game.

Tanvi Sharma, in the day’s all-Indian tie, edged former world junior No. 1 Tasnim Mir 21-16, 22-20, the second game settled only at the death.

Eighth seed Devika Sihag survived the sternest examination of the lot, dropping the opening game before rallying to beat the Republic of Korea’s Park Ga-eun 14-21, 21-7, 21-15.

Rounak Chouhan, the lone Indian to survive Tuesday’s qualifiers, ran out of road against Indonesia’s Richie Duta Richardo, going down 14-21, 16-21.

Mithun Manjunath faded after a competitive opener to lose 18-21, 4-21 to Hong Kong China’s Jason Gunawan.

Saneeth Dayanand lost 4-21, 21-19, 12-21 to Eogene Ewe of Malaysia to bow out of the men’s singles.

Ashmita Chaliha took the first game off second seed Lin Hsiang-ti in her opening women’s singles tie before falling 21-16, 14-21, 15-21, while Shriyanshi Valishetty was outclassed 11-21, 12-21 by fourth seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand.

Isharani Baruah, up against top seed Chiu Pin-chian of Chinese Taipei, lost 8-21, 21-19, 17-21.

In men’s doubles, Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu lost 21-18, 10-21, 18-21 to fourth seeds Chen Zhi-yi and Presley Smith.

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