Sindhu enters Malaysia Open semis after Yamaguchi retires with injury
- Last updated: January 9, 2026 | 21:38 ..
India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu progressed to the semi-finals of the women’s singles event at the Malaysia Open badminton tournament after injury concerns forced her Japanese opponent Akane Yamaguchi to retire midway at the Stadium Axiata Arena here on Friday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu was leading 21-11 against reigning world champion Yamaguchi before the Japanese shuttler told the chair umpire she could not continue, as her injury was hampering her movement.
Yamaguchi, who arrived at the court with a knee brace, did not look comfortable from the outset as Sindhu quickly built up a 10-2 lead.
Yamaguchi struggled to move freely and looked frustrated when her shots missed the lines. Her tactic of pushing Sindhu deep into the backcourt did bring her 11 points, but too many unforced errors meant she made little impact on the final result.
The Indian took just 12 minutes to wrap up the first game, after which the Japanese conceded to give Sindhu her first Super 1000 semi-final in three years.
Sindhu reached the Malaysia Open semi-finals for the first time in eight years and will next face either sixth-seeded Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani or second-seeded Chinese Wang Zhi Yi.
On Thursday, Sindhu beat 19-year-old Tomoka Miyazaki 21-8, 21-13 in 33 minutes to make her first Super 1000 quarterfinal of the season.
India’s top men’s doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was ousted in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open 2026 badminton tournament after a straight-game defeat on Friday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the two-time world championships bronze medallists and reigning Asian Games champions, went down 21-10, 23-21 against sixth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri of Indonesia.
Satwik-Chirag’s loss ended India’s doubles campaign at the tournament.
The Indian duo made a slow start to the contest, allowing the Indonesian pair to race to a 5-0 lead before holding a 11-5 advantage at the interval en route to comfortably wrapping up the opener.
In the second game, the contest was finely poised with Satwik-Chirag edging a tight interval 11-10.
Agencies