Badminton World Championships 2026 Draw highlights: PV Sindhu in lower quarter of top half

Shi Yuqi is vulnerable first up. Which is good for Ayush.

But Shi Yuqi knows he is vulnerable first up. Which is not good for Ayush.

But an India vs China early round is big-ticket for BWF. Pulls people early. Team Ayush will simply need a good gameplan.

It's not entirely unheard of.

B Sai Praneeth has beaten Lee Chong Wei at All England Rnd 1 ten years ago.

Prannoy has taken out Taufik Hidayat once at India Open.

And, Lakshya Sen of course beat Shi Yuqi at All E this year.

Pressure on the Chinese, one would think who would be sick of Indians who turn up in Round 1. A crown to defend.

Ayush Shetty

Plays Chinese top ranked Shi Yuqi in Round 1.

Only way to look at it - Good opportunity to avenge Asian Championships final loss. Nice and early.

Sindhu in lower quarter of top half. So, no An Se Young till semis.

Satwik-Chirag path to finals

Potentially,

Raymond Indra - Nikolaus Joaquin of Indonesia (Pre QF)

Liang-Wang of China (QF)

Fikri-Fajar of Indonesia (Semis

They avoid Seo Seung Jae and Kim Won Ho till finals.

And they will not run into Aaron-Soh till finals either.

Not a bad draw

Treesa-Gayatri, World No 39 currently, start against Spanish Paula Lopez-Lucia Rodriguez, ranked No 42

Tournament Software, the Dutch company software, is a blast from the past. Redundant since BWF created its own App, it remains the official shuffler deciding destinies in Draws for badminton tournaments.

Generations have followed live scores on the software in pre-Live stream times.

Draw will be conducted electronically using the tournament software system. Since all the doubles events have 48 pairs, the seeded pairs will receive byes in the first round.

India’s seeded entries:

Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy / Chirag Shetty – 5th

Women’s singles: PV Sindhu – 9th

Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen – 14th

Mixed doubles: Dhruv Kapila / Tanisha Crasto – 15th

Notables who are unseeded: Ayush Shetty, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand

Anticipated Debut: Unnati Hooda

Sindhu's path to 2019 world title.

YP Pai >> Beiwen Zhang >> xxx >> Chen Yufei >> Nozomi Okuhara.

Who did Sindhu beat to guarantee medal in quarters at Basel?

Draw ceremony is expected to start by 2:45 pm

Now, the Sindhu situation.

Seeded ninth, avoiding An Se-young is crucial. Though nobody can win the World's without beating her.

So let's apply Inversion here.

Sindhu and An Se-young keep clashing on the Tour - it's thrice now in the last year, and China draw had them slated to meet before World No 1, the most dominant player since Sindhu arrived, pulled out last month.

But here's the thing: If the draw HAS TO pit them against each other, and Sindhu fancies a deep run, then might as well at the soonest stage when the Indian isn't exhausted. It's tough as is, but nigh impossible to beat the Korean in latter stages.

PV Sindhu's World Championships medals have never been defined by draws. She is fear-agnostic. So she will come prepared. The quarters, with a medal at stake - that will be a match to watch.

But for her sake, let's hope the draw shuffler software doesn't throw ASY Sindhu-wards.

But if she must, shouldn’t it be early? Worth a ponder.

Draw starts 2.30 pm.

The Indira Gandhi stadium is a typhoon. It's massive, it's unpredictable. And all the monkey-pigeon-business from India Open means the court conditions go unscrutinised. Side drifts can be controlled, but the only real variable mattering to players are drift conditions.

Treesa-Gayatri unseeded, out of the spotlight, unheralded. But they tend to do well in big halls. Fitness permitting. Avoiding Chinese is key like for all doubles - for the Chinese have always done well in this arena. But adjusting to whimsy, drifty conditions should be one thing the youngsters know.

Lakshya Sen.

Underrated. Built for big events. At first glance, Shi Yuqi, Kunlavut, Jojo Christie and Anotnsen, top 4 seeds seem mighty difficult. But then it's Sen. Home event. He literally can take out anyone when fit.

Popov, Chou Tien Chen, Victor Lai and Li Shifeng are 4/8. With medal at stake, one would back Sen to deal with them.

Alex Lanier, Alwi Farhan, Lin Chun Yi are all 9/16 with Sen. Personal hunch -- they are dangerous. Because of power-speed game style. Good they will be scattered across draw.

Come to think of it, the most dangerous player might well be unseeded - Ayush Shetty.

Sindhu is hoping to win her 6th medal. As are 2nd seed Akane Yamaguchi (3 gold, 2 bronze) and 4th seed Chen Yufei (2 silver, 3 bronze).

Poetically, her buddies Ratchanok Intanon, herself and Nozomi Okuhara are seeded 7th, 9, 11.

No specific significance. Just symmetry.

Plenty of chat over PV Sindhu's 9th seeding - for a specific 9-letter reason. An Se-young. She needs to avoid the Korean early, goes the refrain, and 8th seed could have delayed the possibility till Quarters. There's a contrarian view. Scroll up to read it.... to the last post :)

Welcome to the Blog for the Draw ceremony of the Badminton World Championships starting in Delhi from August 17. India has won at least one medal 12 times out of 12 of the last World Championships editions.

So it's sort of a big deal.