Kidambi Srikanth produced the Thailand Open's signal upset of the round-of-16 with a 21-14, 21-15 victory over former world champion Loh Kean Yew, the centrepiece of a strong day for India's senior contingent in Bangkok.
The veteran former world No. 1, whose career trajectory has been spent largely outside the top 15 over the past two years, dictated rallies from the front of court against the Singaporean and was rarely troubled in either game. Loh, the 2021 world champion, had been one of the players the tour was watching after a promising start to 2026, but he could not handle Srikanth's tempo at the net.
It added to a productive day for India in Thailand. Lakshya Sen advanced to the quarterfinals with a 21-16, 21-17 win over Singapore's Jason Teh, controlling the back court and absorbing the Teh attack with the kind of patience he has used to anchor his recent stretch of consistent results. PV Sindhu was even more clinical, brushing aside Chinese Taipei's Tung Ciou-Tong 21-9, 21-12 in 37 minutes — her cleanest victory of the early 2026 season and a reminder that the former world No. 2 remains capable of dominating outside the top eight.
There were exits to balance the wins. Ayush Shetty, one of India's brighter young men's singles prospects, lost a three-game tussle to Japan's Kodai Naraoka, 13-21, 21-17, 4-21, the third game collapse summarising how complete Naraoka's fitness advantage proved to be over Shetty's tournament. The pattern carried over to Anmol Kharab, who looked set to upset Olympic medallist Chen Yufei in the women's singles. Kharab led 11-2 in the deciding game before losing 21-19, 13-21, 18-21 — one of the more painful collapses of the round, and a reminder of just how relentlessly the women's elite can chase down a deficit when given a foothold.
Devika Sihag and Malvika Bansod added further Indian three-game wins to extend the country's presence in the quarterfinals across multiple disciplines. The double progression of Sen and Sindhu in singles also means India will have a chance to chase deep runs in both men's and women's draws in Bangkok, a result that the country's top players have not managed simultaneously at a Super 500 event for several months.
For Srikanth specifically, the win over Loh is the kind of mid-tier signal that the 32-year-old has been chasing. A man who has lost the kind of explosive baseline acceleration that defined his early career has been adjusting his game toward a more controlling style at the net — and against Loh, the new version of Srikanth worked. The quarterfinal will pit him against the most in-form player to emerge from the top half of the draw and will give analysts a clearer view of whether the upset over Loh translates into a deeper Thailand Open run.
The Thailand Open's wider story remains the absence of new world No. 1 Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who passed on the event to focus on the upcoming Indonesia Open. With Srikanth, Sen, Sindhu and the country's doubles pairs all alive in the quarterfinals, the tournament is producing one of India's most balanced showings on the Asian leg in 2026.