Malaysia Open 2026: Putri Bungkam Wakil Jepang

JAKARTA - Putri Kusuma Wardani managed to defeat the Japanese women's singles, Manami Suizu, to reach the second round of the 2026 Malaysia Open and maintain her sweet record against the world's 35th ranked shuttler.

The daughter, who is the sixth seed in the tournament, locked in the victory in two straight sets 21-8 and 21-16 to keep Indonesia's women's singles hopes alive.

"First, thank God we were able to finish the match well. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the game, it's just that there is a little bit of nervousness because it might be the first match," said Putri after the match.

This is Putri's second victory in the competitive arena against Manami. She previously won their first meeting at the Macau Open last year.

Putri previously closed last year with not very satisfactory results at the 2025 BWF World Tour Finals. She managed to win once in three matches in the group stage.

The two defeats in the closing event of the season came against world number one An Se-young and former world number one Akane Yamaguchi, two names he has never lost to in competitive events.

"The break from the World Tour Finals is not too far, about two weeks so it's not too difficult to find the rhythm again. I want to be able to improve even more than last year," said Putri.

The Tangerang-born badminton player is the only Indonesian women's singles player at the 2026 Malaysia Open. He should have gone down with Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who eventually withdrew because he was not fit.

Overall, Indonesia managed to place five representatives in the second round of the 2026 Malaysia Open out of the nine representatives sent there.

The other four representatives who managed to reach the second round of the BWF Super 1000 level event were Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri, Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani, Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma/Meilysa Trias Puspitasari, and Jonatan Christie.

The four representatives who must pick up their luggage earliest are Jafar Hidayatullah/Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu, Raymond Indra/Nikolaus Joaquin, Marwan Faza/Aisyah Salsabila Putri Pranata, and Alwi Farhan.