The BWF Badminton World Championships will return to India after 17 years as the mega-event takes place from August 17 to 23 at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi. The draw for the 30th edition took place on Wednesday (August 5) in the host city, which is also the capital of India.
The competition will span across 5 categories (Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles). India has one seeded pair in each category apart from the women’s doubles. The BWF announced that the 16 seeded pairs will get a bye in the first round of the doubles, but that will not be the case in the singles, where 64 players will participate and all shuttlers will kickstart their campaign from the first round.
Seeded Indian Players
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
Among Indian players, young star Ayush Shetty (unseeded) faces a tough start as he will face top seed and defending champion Shi Yuqi. Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen could face 2nd seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the third round.
Eyeing a historic sixth medal, PV Sindhu will face Sophia Noble of Ireland in the round of 64. She will play her long-time rival An Song Young in the semi-final. However, she could play third seed Wang Zhi Yi in the third round. The two-time Olympic medallist not only has the joint-most medals among singles players in the tournament’s history but also is the only Indian to win a gold across categories and genders.
Meanwhile, Satwik and Chirag face a tough draw too, as they are the third seeds against Liang Weikeng / Wang Chang (China) in the quarter-finals. The pair have won the bronze medal at the tournament twice in their career and will aim to become the first Indian male shuttlers to be crowned world champions, which they achieved in the 2019 edition at Basel by winning a gold medal
Indian shuttlers will aim to continue a remarkable run of winning atleast one medal in every edition since 2010.
First Round Matches Of All Indians
Men’s Singles
Lakshya Sen vs Collins Valentine (Austria)
Ayush Shetty vs Shi Yuqi (China)
Women’s Singles
PV Sindhu vs Sophia Noble (Ireland)
Unnati Hooda vs Thet Thar Huzar (Myanmar)
Men’s Doubles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy- Chirag Shetty bye
Hariharan-Dhruv vs Scott Guldea-Paul Reynolds (Ireland)
Women’s Doubles
Treesa Jolly – Gayatri Gopichand vs Paula Lopez-Lucia Rodriguez (Spain)
Simran Singhi- Kavipriya Selvam vs
Mixed doubles:
Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto Bye
Rohan Kapoor- Rutvika Shivani vs Jonathan Bing-Crystal Lai (Canada)
BWF World Championships All Seeded Players
BWF World Championship 2026 Schedule
17 August – First Round (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles)
18 August – First Round (Mixed Doubles), Second Round (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles)
19 August – Third Round (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles), Second Round (Mixed Doubles)
20 August – Quarter-finals (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles), Third Round (Mixed Doubles)
21 August – Semi-finals (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles), Quarter-finals (Mixed Doubles)
22 August – Finals (Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles), Semi-finals (Mixed Doubles)
23 August – Final (Mixed Doubles)