Badminton: With home titles proving elusive, India Open 2026 presents the country’s top shuttlers with chance to prove big-match credentials

Satwik-Chirag on the left and Lakshya Sen on the right. (BAI photo)

Just seven India Open titles out of the 70 available across 5 categories in the most defining decade and a half of Indian badminton, leads to the question: Have Indian shuttlers made the most of the ‘home advantage’?

The biggest names – Saina Nehwal (twice), PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Lakshya Sen and Jwala Gutta-V Diju (back in 2010) – have no doubt etched their names on the winners’ board. Since back in the day in 2010 when it was a mere Grand Prix event right until its current Super 750 status, Indians have made a total of 21 semifinals too, falling at the penultimate or final hurdle, thus not winning a title.  But despite Delhi cultivating a fairly loyal watching base that can slowly be persuaded to shell out ticket money to watch badminton (good sport deserves a paying public, not passes), it’s been difficult to keep the home crowd invested with partisan interest till Finals Sunday.

As has been the trend, Satwik-Chirag have salvaged the situation when singles stars have disappointed. The duo have made three of the last four editions’ semis, including two finals, dragging Indian interest onto the last day. HS Prannoy was the last Indian semifinalist in singles, coinciding with his uptick in 2024, while Sen was the last to win the singles title in 2022.

As a Super 750 now, the India Open is no piece of cake to win. Global big names Shi Yuqi, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, besides three-time champ Viktor Axelsen, tend to turn up in a stacked field, and Sen has obviously not quite managed to turn the IG Stadium into a home citadel. While most of the badminton jamboree shows up at every port of call on the circuit, India’s men’s singles hasn’t quite reigned the way Srikanth did in 2015, on the way to beating Axelsen, albeit at Siri Fort stadium, where conditions and his fine form suited his march to the subsequent World No 1 pinnacle.

Srikanth’s delectable game will still be seen in action a decade on and Sen will start the season upbeat, but it might well be the emergence of Ayush Shetty – playing his first home event since he started scalping noticeable names – that Delhi would hope for. India Open tends to be a pretty accurate marker of not just the season ahead, but also of imminent career successes.

For the rich crop of men’s singles that India produced, the India Open couldn’t quite be said to have been a witness to their finest moments. Srikanth besting Axelsen and Sen outwitting Loh Kean Yew remain the only notable highs. Parupalli Kashyap remained a strident trier and this one season, Anand Pawar made a good run of it till semis, but more or less, the home Super Series has seen early exits most years.

Satwik-Chirag in action. (BAI photo)

Malvika Bansod, making a comeback, and Unnati Hooda, still trying to make sense of her up and down results, might not exactly be in title contention. But both would know if there’s a competition to make a statement, get those shock wins, it’s at the India Open. Far too often, Indians have either been gobbled by the enormity of the occasion or simply stayed too nonchalant when facing higher-ranked names at the home event.

Playing in front of the home crowd, soaking in the pressure of the clamoring noise and planting a defiant flag against Top Tenners needs a different mental preparation. Sandwiched between Malaysia and the All England – two Super 1000s – it’s easy to treat India Open as any other event on the circuit. But it makes different demands – media commitments, partisan crowds, expectations from self, the once-in-a-year opportunity laced with the pressure of playing in front of home fans.

One Indian pairing that has recent experience of winning in front of the home crowd are Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, who won the Syed Modi International twice in two years. While women’s doubles is notoriously tough to nick any level of titles in, and there hasn’t been an Indian champion in that category ever, Delhi will hope Satwik-Chirag and Treesa-Gayatri light up the IG Stadium going deep in the January 13 week. India is scheduled to host this year’s World Championships at the same venue, and the India Open is a fine dress rehearsal to prove the home contingent can deliver as hosts while its top names don’t go ghosting the titles.