Indian Badminton Players Set Their Sights on All England and World Championships in 2025

New Delhi, Dec 31 (NationPress) After experiencing a mixed performance in 2024, Indian shuttlers are ready to embrace the New Year with zeal, kicking off the season with the Malaysia Open and India Open. However, their primary focus will be on the highly esteemed All England Open Badminton Championship and World Championship, along with other major tournaments.

In the previous season, Indian athletes secured a total of five titles in the 2024 BWF World Tour, comprising one title each in men's and women's singles, two in men's doubles, and one in women's doubles.

The new season will commence with the Asian swing as the Super 1000 event, Malaysia Open, kicks off on January 7 in Kuala Lumpur, followed by the Indian Open, a Super 750 tournament, scheduled from January 14-19 in the capital.

The Asian circuit will conclude with the Indonesia Masters Super 500 (January 21-26) and the Thailand Masters Super 300 (January 28-February 2) before the competition moves to Europe.

The European segment will open with the illustrious All England Open, the oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament globally, taking place from March 11-16 at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.

Indian players have a long history of competing in the All England Open but have only claimed two titles thus far, with five final appearances recorded between 1980 and 2024.

Badminton icon Prakash Padukone is the only Indian to have reached the All England Open final twice, first in 1980, when he made history by being the first Indian to win the coveted title. He reached the final again the following year but was unable to defend his men's singles championship. After a gap of 21 years, Pulle Gopichand became the second Indian to clinch the All England Open title in 2001.

In 2015, Saina Nehwal, the London Olympics bronze medallist, became the first Indian woman to reach the All England final, finishing as runner-up, while Lakshya Sen became the first Indian male shuttler to reach the men’s final in 21 years since Gopichand.

Prominent players such as PV Sindhu, who recently got married, Lakshya Sen, the exciting men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, along with the promising women's doubles duo Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached consecutive semifinals in 2022 and 2023, will be determined to capture the elusive title and end a 45-year drought.

Former champions Satwik and Chirag will seek to defend their men's doubles title at the Badminton Asia Championship, set for April 8-13 in Ningbo, China, after missing the tournament in 2024. This dynamic duo was the first Indian pair to secure a gold medal at the continental event in 2023.

Satwik and Chirag, who became the first Indian men's doubles pair to ascend to the top of the BWF rankings in 2023, faced a challenging 2024, winning only one title, the French Open, after previously losing two finals at the Malaysia Masters and the India Open.

Nevertheless, they had a strong commencement to their Paris Olympic journey, reaching the quarterfinals but falling short in the last-eight stage.

Meanwhile, in the mixed team event, the shuttlers will aim to upgrade the color of the bronze medal they secured in 2023 at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, scheduled for February 11-16 in Qingdao, China.

The BWF World Championships will be hosted from August 25-31 in Paris, France, where India has garnered 14 medals from 1983 to 2023.

Sindhu stands out as the most decorated Indian shuttler at the BWF World Championships with five medals, making her the second woman globally, after China's Zhang Ning, to win five or more singles medals in this competition.

After her gold medal victory in the women’s singles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, double Olympic medallist Sindhu encountered a tough phase. Battling to regain her form after a period of injury, she faced numerous early exits, causing her to drop out of the top 10 world rankings in March 2023, a position she had held since November 2016. Additionally, Sindhu missed the opportunity to secure a third Olympic medal after her elimination in the pre-quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics.

However, at the beginning of December, Sindhu clinched her first title in over two years, overcoming China’s Wu Luo Yu in the Syed Modi International women's singles final.

The former world champion had last triumphed at the Singapore Open in July 2022. In the ongoing 2024 season, her only final appearance was at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 before she ended her title drought in Lucknow.

Active players with World Championship medals include Kidambi Srikanth (Silver 2021), Lakshya (Bronze 2021), Satwik-Chirag (Bronze 2022), and HS Prannoy (Bronze 2023) alongside Sindhu.

Notably, since 2017, India has secured at least one medal in every edition of the BWF World Championships.

With numerous top Indian shuttlers targeting major titles in 2025, including the prestigious All England Open and the BWF World Championships, the year is set to be significant for Indian badminton.

The athletes, motivated by past achievements and current challenges, will strive to elevate India's position in the global badminton arena.