Indian badminton star PV Sindhu has successfully advanced to the semifinals of the Malaysia Open 2026, a significant BWF Super 1000 tournament. She secured her spot after her Japanese opponent, third seed Akane Yamaguchi, retired due to a knee injury during their quarter-final match on Friday. Sindhu had already won the first game convincingly with a score of 21-11 when Yamaguchi withdrew. This marks a strong return for Sindhu, who is competing in her first tournament after a prolonged injury lay-off in late 2025. Earlier in the tournament, Sindhu had demonstrated excellent form, overcoming Chinese Taipei's Sung Shuo-yun and Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki in earlier rounds. However, it was an early exit for India's formidable men's doubles duo, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. The world number three pair crashed out in the quarter-finals, suffering a straight-games defeat to Indonesia's Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri. The Indian pair went down 10-21, 21-23, ending their campaign at the season-opening event. Despite leading for a significant part of the second game, they were unable to close it out against the Indonesian challengers. This mixed bag of results highlights the competitive nature of the Malaysia Open for the Indian contingent.