US Open 2026 badminton: Devika Sihag stuns former junior world champion to make semi-finals
Devika Sihag beat third seed Riko Gunji of Japan in straight games. Kidambi Srikanth and Rounak Chouhan also advanced.
India’s Devika Sihag upset former junior world champion Riko Gunji of Japan to storm into the women’s singles semi-finals of the US Open 2026 badminton tournament at the Titan Gym in California on Friday.
The 21-year-old Indian badminton player produced a composed display under pressure to beat the third seed 22-20, 21-19 and book her place in the last four of the BWF Super 300 event.
Devika Sihag, 35th in the badminton rankings, has now reached her third semi-final of the season, having won the Thailand Masters BWF Super 300 title and the Azerbaijan International earlier this year.
She will next face Denmark’s second seed Line Christophersen, who defeated India’s Tanvi Sharma 21-16, 11-21, 21-11.
The 18-year-old Rounak Chouhan and veteran Kidambi Srikanth, 33, also progressed to the last four with wins in their respective men’s singles quarter-finals.
Chouhan, 80th in the badminton rankings, defeated Israel’s world No. 77 Misha Zilberman 23-21, 21-11 in just 38 minutes to reach his first men’s singles BWF World Tour Super 300 semi-final.
Later in the day, Kidambi Srikanth, former world No. 1, defeated Liao Jhuo-Fu of Chinese Taipei 21-9, 12-21, 21-8. Srikanth had beaten Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, the Paris 2024 Olympics bronze medal winner, in the second round.
Rounak Chouhan, who stunned world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the second round, will face eighth seed Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei for a place in the final while Srikanth will take on fourth seed Yudai Okimoto of Japan.
Meanwhile, Rakshitha Sree went down 15-21, 21-16, 21-12 against Canada’s Rachel Chan in the women’s singles quarter-final.
India’s doubles challenge at the US Open badminton tournament ended in the second round on Thursday.
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