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Journalism of Courage
India’s top badminton stars will have to pass stern tests early on if they have to keep up the country’s medal-winning streak at the BWF World Championships. When the draws for the tournament — to be held in Paris from August 25 were made on Wednesday — in men’s singles, Lakshya Sen was handed the toughest possible draw as he is pitted against the top seed and world No 1 Shi Yu Qi of China. At the bottom half of the men’s singles draw, HS Prannoy starts off with a winnable match against Joakim Oldorff, the world No 49 from Finland, but his second round clash is set to be against second seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
Possibly India’s best bet for a podium finish this year at Paris 2025 – one year down the line from the heartbreaks of Paris Olympics at this very venue last year – would be Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Seeded 9th in men’s doubles, they have an opening round bye and would either face fellow Indians Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruben Kumar or Liu Kuang Heng and Yang Po Han of Chinese Taipei in the second round. But their further progress faces two massive tests. A potential round of 16 clash against Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang is followed by a possible quarterfinal against their nemeses Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. A year ago, the Malaysians had ended the Indians medal hope at the Olympics in the quarterfinals too.
India’s most successful player in the history of the World Championships, five-time medallist and former winner PV Sindhu historically has had a strong record against Chinese players at the event. But given her form in 2025, it would be mammoth ask for her to overcome second seed Wang Zhi Yi who she could face in the quarterfinals. The Indian star begins her campaign against Bulgaria’s Kaloyana Nalbantova and potentially Malaysia’s Letshanaa Karupathevan in the second round.
In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have been listed as withdrawn from the latest list of entries. India will be represented by Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra (who take on Margot Lambert and Camille Pognante of France) and the Panda sisters, Rutaparna and Swetaparna, who face another sibling duo in the Stoeva sisters, Gabriela and Stefani.
In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila are seeded 16th and have an opening round bye. They face a potential round of 16 clash against fifth seeds Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet. Ruthvika Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde take on Macau’s Leong Iok Chong and Ng When Chi in the opening round, then are scheduled to take on Malaysia’s star duo of Chen Tang Jio and Toh Ee Wei in the second round.
India have won at least one medal at every BWF World Championships since 2011. Given their overall struggles on tour this year, the odds of that streak extending were dependent on receiving kinder draws but it hasn’t quite panned out that way.
After Prakash Padukone’s bronze medal in 1983, India had a long wait for a medal at the World Championships that finally ended in 2011 thanks to Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta. In 2013, a teenaged PV Sindhu would win the first of her five medals at the marquee event when she bagged bronze. She’d repeat the feat a year later.
In 2015, Saina Nehwal made history by becoming the first Indian to reach a final, as she won a silver. 2017 was especially memorable as Saina won bronze and Sindhu lost arguably one of the greatest badminton finals of all time against Nozomi Okuhara; it was the first time India had two medals at one edition.
In 2018, Sindhu would again come close to that elusive gold, as she won a second silver. That wait would come to an end in some style at Basel 2019 as she thrashed Okuhara in a repeat of the 2017 final to become the first ever badminton world champion from India. In men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth won bronze that year in Basel too. In 2021, another slice of badminton history for India was made by Srikanth Kidambi (the first male shuttler to reach the final) as he won silver and Lakshya Sen clinched bronze. In 2022, Satwik-Chirag won bronze in Tokyo to become the first Indian men’s doubles medallists at the event, while HS Prannoy had a memorable run last edition in Copenhagen as he beat Viktror Axelsen en route to a fine bronze.
(More to follow)
