Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will hope to salvage her season when she leads India’s challenge at the BWF World Championships 2025 badminton tournament in Paris, France, starting on Monday.
Matches from the Badminton World Championships 2025 will be available to watch on live streaming in India.
Organised by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the BWF World Championships is the most prestigious badminton competition held every year except for Olympic years.
It offers the most badminton world ranking points along with the Olympics and crowns the senior world champions of a particular calendar year.
India have won at least one medal at every BWF World Championships since 2011.
PV Sindhu, 15th in the women’s singles rankings, will take on world No. 66 and two-time European junior champion Kaloyana Nalbantova of Bulgaria in her first round match.
The Indian badminton player is a former world champion, having won the women’s singles title in 2019. She was also runners up in the two years preceding her world title and bagged bronze medals in 2013 and 2014.
However, PV Sindhu has struggled with form in the 2025 BWF World Tour. Her best finish this year was a quarter-final appearance at the India Open in January.
She followed up her Indian Open run with four first-round exits and three round of 16 finishes on the BWF Tour.
In the men’s singles section, Lakshya Sen, 21st in the badminton rankings, was handed a tough opening round draw against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi of the People’s Republic of China.
A semi-finalist at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Lahshya won a bronze medal at the 2021 badminton world championships in Huelva.
Like Sindhu, Lakshya Sen has also endured a difficult 2025 season. His best runs this year have been a semi-final finish at the Macau Open and a quarter-final appearance at the All England Open in March.
He has also suffered two second-round and six opening-round exits this season.
World No. 34 HS Prannoy is the other Indian in the men’s singles draw. He is a world championships bronze medallist from 2023.
Meanwhile, India’s top doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received an opening round bye. The Satwik-Chirag duo made four semi-finals this year – at the Indian, Singapore, Malaysian and China Opens – but failed to win a title.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were the first Indian pair to win a medal in the men’s doubles event at the badminton world championships after settling for a bronze in Tokyo back in 2022.
India’s other men’s doubles duo of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruben Kumar will make their world championships debut.
In the women’s doubles draw, India will mount challenges on two fronts with Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda and Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra in the fray.
The mixed doubles section features the pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto and the duo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde.