Thursday’s action at the US Open 2026 badminton tournament at the Titan Gym in California witnessed a series of massive shocks, headlined by an incredible giant-killing run from an 18-year-old qualifier and a vintage performance from a veteran master.

The headline result came from Indian teenage sensation Rounak Chouhan, ranked 80th in the world, who stunned top seed and world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in a grueling 49-minute encounter. Making only his second BWF World Tour appearance after debuting last week in Macau, the qualifier fought back from a 17-15 deficit in the first game to win six unanswered points. He then clawed back from 12-8 down in the second game, saving an incredible four game points to seal a historic 21-17, 26-24 victory. He will face Israel’s Misha Zilberman in the quarter-finals.

Joining the teenager in the last eight is former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, who rolled back the years to completely dismantle Malaysia’s Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist, Lee Zii Jia. Srikanth dominated the high-profile second-round match from start to finish, requiring just 28 minutes to wrap up a comprehensive 21-14, 21-13 victory, setting up a quarter-final clash against Chinese Taipei’s Liao Jhuo-Fu.

It proved to be a flawless day for Indian singles competitors, with three women’s singles shuttlers also successfully punching their tickets to the quarter-finals:

1. Fifth seed Tanvi Sharma advanced after defeating Chinese Taipei’s Tung Ciou-Tong with a 21-12, 21-19 victory.
2. Rakshitha Ramraj delivered a dominant display to storm past another Chinese Taipei player, Chen Su Yu, winning 21-4, 21-19.
3. Devika Sihag rounded off the singles clean sweep by overcoming Thailand’s Tonrug Saeheng in straight games, 21-17, 21-19.

In stark contrast to the singles success, the doubles campaign came to a complete halt in the second round. Commonwealth Games medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a disappointing 21-19, 21-8 defeat against Japan’s Sumire Nakade and Miyu Takahashi. Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K bowed out after an exhausting one-hour marathon, narrowly losing 24-22, 23-25, 15-21 to Denmark’s Kristoffer Kolding and Mette Werge.

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