The country had a decent year in badminton but needs to do a lot better in the years to come
We are less than a week away from 2026 and are super excited to see what India’s next year will be in the realm of sports. However, before the year ends, let us take a look at India’s badminton journey in 2025, which had some highs and lows.
PV Sindhu beats world no. 2
On August 28, 30-year-old PV Sindhu produced a vintage performance when she defeated world no. 2 Wang Zhiyi of PRC at the Adidas Arena in Paris during the BWF World Championships 2025 badminton. Sindhu took nearly 48 minutes to wrap up the game with a scoreline of 21-19, 21-15, which left Zhiyi in utter disbelief. By doing so, Sindhu secured a place in the quarter-final round of the tournament.
Unfortunately, the 2019 World Champion lost the quarterfinal in a gripping encounter against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani with a points table of 14-21, 21-13, 16-21. The 64-minute match was close, but Sindhu ended on the losing side.
A first quarter-final in seven years
India’s other high in the BWF World Championships was in the mixed doubles category, where Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha defeated the reigning Asian champions and two-time bronze medallists Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong, who are also world no. 5.
(Credit- News18)
However, in the quarterfinal, the duo lost to Malaysia’s World No. 4 duo, Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, in merely 37 minutes with a set score of 15-21, 13-21. The pair missed the bronze by inches.
A bronze in the BWF World Tour Finals 2025
In December, badminton duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ended the year with a bronze medal in the BWF World Tour Finals 2025 at Hangzhou. The Indian pair lost the semi-final match at the hands of PRC’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang with a scoreline of 10-21, 21-17, 21-13.
(Credit- The Indian Express)
There’s no doubt that India’s performance at the BWF World Championships was dismal, with several near misses. However, the only positive was India’s one medal, which kept the nation’s 14-year streak of winning at least one medal in the tournament intact.
Disappointing India Open
The biggest disappointment of the year in India’s badminton scenario was the country’s performance on home turf, i.e., the India Open. At the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall of the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi, none of the 44 Indian players won a medal. The best performance was from the seventh-seeded men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who reached the semi-finals.
In 2026, it is imperative that Indian badminton players learn to deal with pressure. More than performance, it was pressure and attitude that cost Indian players victories that should’ve been in the pocket.
