BWF Badminton World Championships 2025: Tough draw for Indian shuttlers with 15-year streak on the line

Indian shuttlers will have to pull off some massive upsets in order to finish on the podium at this month’s Badminton World Championships, as per the draw ceremony held on Wednesday.

The 2025 edition of the event will be held from August 25 to 31 in Paris, a little over a year after the city played host to the Olympics where Lakshya Sen’s fourth-place finish in men’s singles was the best result for India.

India last finished without a medal at a world championships in the 2010 edition in the French capital.

Men’s Singles – Lakshya Sen, H.S. Prannoy

World No. 21 Lakshya, the 2021 world championships bronze medallist, will face Shi Yu Qi, the top-seeded Chinese and the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, in the opening round. The Indian beat Shi in the men’s team final at the Asiad in Hangzhou but since then, the Chinese player has won all three matches between the two.

World No. 34 H.S. Prannoy, the 2023 world championships bronze medallist, takes on Finland’s Joakim Oldorff in the first round. A win over World No. 49 Oldorff for Prannoy will potentially set up a second-round clash with second-seeded Dane Anders Antonsen.

Women’s Singles – P.V. Sindhu

P.V. Sindhu, who has won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the world championships, is the only Indian in the women’s singles field this year. The 30-year-old Sindhu, who became the first and still the only Indian to win the title in 2019 in Basel, faces Bulgarian World No. 66 Kaloyana Nalbantova in the first round. Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, is likely to be up against second-seeded Chinese and two-time Asian Championships gold medallist Wang Zhi Yi in the round of 16.

Men’s Doubles – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Hariharan Amsakarunan/Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won a bronze medal at the 2022 edition in Tokyo, have received a first-round bye. Their round-of-32 match will be against the winner of the first-round clash between compatriots Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi, and Chinese Taipei’s Liu Kuang Heng and Yang Po Han.

World No. 9 Satwik and Chirag find themselves in a tough section of the draw as China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, World No. 6, are their potential round-of-16 opponents. Like Satwik and Chirag, the Chinese pair has previously been ranked World No. 1 in the BWF Rankings and also has a world championships bronze medal (Copenhagen, 2023). Liang and Wang, who won silver medal at the Paris Olympics, lead the Indians 6-2 in the head-to-head record.

If Satwik and Chirag manage to make it past Liang and Wang, their opponents in the quarterfinal will potentially be former world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. Chia and Soh, the second seeds from Malaysia, broke the Indians’ dream of an Olympic medal when they beat them in the quarterfinals in the same city last year. The Malaysians have a dominating 11-3 head-to-head advantage over Satwik and Chirag, including wins at the semifinals of the Singapore Open and the China Open this season.

Women’s Doubles – Priya Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra, Rutaparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda

World No. 12 Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, India’s top-ranked women’s doubles pair, has pulled out of the event. Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra, and Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda are the two Indian duos in the field.

World No. 39 Priya and Shruti face Frenchwomen Margot Lambert and Camille Pognante in the opening round. Victory for the Indians would mean a potential second-round match against World No. 4 Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea.

The Panda sisters, ranked 38th in the world, take on Stoeva sisters – Gabriela and Stefani – from Bulgaria in the first round. The winner will face Malaysia’s Go Pei Kee and Teoh Mei Xing, World No. 18, in the round of 32.

Mixed Doubles – Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto, Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Gadde

World No. 17 Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, the top-ranked Indians in mixed doubles, have received a bye in the first round. They will either face Ireland’s Joshua Magee and Moya Ryan or USA’s Linden Wang and Eva Wang in their campaign opener.

World No. 33 Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde take on Leong Iok Chong and Weng Chi Ng of Macau, China, in the first round.