Khalin Joshi fired a superb five-under 29 to take the first-round lead at the Nava Raipur Open 2026 on Tuesday. The tournament has been heavily affected by rain, with officials reducing each round to nine holes after the front nine became unplayable and the weather forecast showed little improvement for the rest of the week.

Joshi’s 29 gave him a one-shot advantage over a group of players tied second at four-under 30. The chasing pack includes Sri Lanka’s Chalitha Pushpika and Indians Akshay Niranjan, Brashwarpal Singh, Aryav Shah and Bipin Mukhiya.

A further 11 players shared seventh place on three-under 31 after the opening round. Among them were Shivendra Singh Sisodia, Pankaj Maandiya, Raunil Kukar, Vasu Sehgal, Thailand’s Tanapat Pichaikool, Kunal Chellani, Abhishek Kumar, Vishesh Sharma, Stepan Danek, Hemant Yadav and Declan Kenny, keeping the leaderboard tightly packed heading into the next round.