In Badminton, India’s Aakarshi Kashyap entered the women’s singles main draw at the Orleans Masters 2026 badminton tournament after winning both her qualifying matches yesterday. Competing at the Palais des Sports in France, Aakarshi Kashyap began her campaign with a hard-fought 21-19, 17-21, 21-13 win over compatriot Shriyanshi Valishetty in the women’s singles rankings. The Indian badminton player then went on to secure a 21-17, 21-19 victory against Lee Yu-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei.
Aakarshi Kashyap will take on Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in the first round. In the Men’s doubles first round, Lai Po-Yu and Tsai Fu-Cheng of Chinese Taipei defeated Arjun Reddy Pochana and Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu with a score of 21-7 and 21-9 last night. Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, as well as youngsters Ayush Shetty, Malvika Bansod, Anmol Kharb and Tanvi Sharma will begin their campaigns at the BWF Super 300 tournament today. India’s top doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Paris 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya Sen have opted to skip the Orleans Masters.
