Indian badminton star PV Sindhu reached the women’s singles final of the Japan Open 2026 after her semi-final opponent, China’s Chen Yufei, retired with a hamstring injury during the second game on Saturday (Jul 18).
World No. 12 Sindhu was leading 21-19, 15-10 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium when world No. 4 Chen, the former Olympic champion, was forced to withdraw after 44 minutes of play, according to Olympics.com.
Sindhu will now face Japan’s world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi in Sunday’s final. Yamaguchi secured her place in the title match by defeating Indonesia’s world No. 6 Putri Kusuma Wardani in the other semi-final.
This will be Sindhu’s first BWF World Tour final since winning the Syed Modi International Super 300 title in December 2024. It will also be her first-ever final at a BWF Super 750 tournament.
Sindhu entered the match with an 8-6 head-to-head advantage over Chen and made a confident start, taking a 16-11 lead in the opening game. Chen, who had won their previous four meetings, fought back to level the score at 18-18, but Sindhu stayed calm and closed out the game 21-19.
The Indian continued to dominate in the second game, building a 15-10 lead before Chen was forced to retire because of injury.
Sindhu’s last victory over Chen came in the semi-finals of the 2019 BWF World Championships, where she went on to win the gold medal.
With this win, Sindhu became the first Indian badminton player to reach the Japan Open final. She is also the only Indian left in the tournament.
India had a disappointing campaign otherwise, with Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty losing in the opening round. The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retired due to injury in their first match, while the mixed doubles duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were eliminated in the pre-quarterfinals.