Unnati Hooda Exits China Masters 2026 in First Round Against Kim Ga-eun

Unnati Hooda's Challenge at China Masters

Shenzhen, China - On September 1, India's promising badminton player Unnati Hooda faced a tough challenge at the China Masters 2026, exiting in the first round after a match against world number 12, Kim Ga-eun. The encounter took place on Tuesday at the Shenzhen Sports Centre Gymnasium.

The 18-year-old, currently ranked 25th globally, was defeated by Kim with scores of 21-10, 21-18 in a match that lasted 37 minutes, according to reports from Olympics.com.

Kim quickly established a 4-0 lead in the first game, extending it to 11-3 by the mid-game interval. She maintained her dominance after the break, securing the first game. In the second game, Unnati started strong, taking a 3-0 lead, but Kim soon turned the tables to lead 7-5. Unnati briefly regained the lead at 15-14.

Despite trailing 16-18, Unnati managed to level the score, but Kim responded by clinching the last three points to win the match.

This was the first encounter between Unnati and Kim, who recently won the Macau Open in June and was part of the South Korean team that secured gold at the Asian Games 2023.

Prior to this event, Unnati had reached the second round in her debut at the Badminton World Championship (BWF) last month in New Delhi.

In men's doubles, MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan had to retire from their opening match against China's Chen Boyang and Liu Yi while trailing 11-8 in the first game.

On Wednesday, Indian badminton stars Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Tanvi Sharma, Devika Sihag, and the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are set to compete in the ongoing BWF Super 750 tournament.