BWF tournaments May/June 2025

[pancakesdonuts]

We have 5 BWF World tour events back to back:

Taipei Open Super 300 (6-11 May)
Thailand Open Super 500 (13-18 May)
Malaysian Masters Super 500 (20-25 May)
Singapore Open Super 750 (27 May-1 June)
Indonesia Open Super 1000 (3-8 June)

Taipei Open has started and already at QF stage. Only 2 players (Unnati & Ayush) made it through. Ayush upset WR #13 and All england finalist Lee Chia Hao (TPE) in Round 1. He will face 7th seed Brian Yang (CAN) in QF tomorrow. Unnati beat Anupama in R1 and local player Lin Sih Yun (TPE). Now she will face another local player Hung Yi Ting (TPE) who she beat 2 months back at Singpore IC. So, very good chance she makes it through SF.


Most of our senior players are done. So, only youngsters to watch out for in these tournaments.

[pancakesdonuts]

Ayush and Unnati won their QF matches. Both will now play top seeded players in SF. Ayush again with decent victory over higher ranked player. He will face #7 Chou Tien Chen (TPE) who has been not in great form in the past few tournaments. Good potential for another upset.

While Unnati will play Tomoka Miyazaki (#8) of Japan. They have played once before where Tomoka beat Unnati in World Junior Champ 2023.

Unnati has reached new career high ranking #45 while Ayush at #40. Good luck to both of them!

[pancakesdonuts]

Ayush and Unnati both lost their SF matches in straight sets unfortunately. Unnati lost 19-21, 11-21 against Tomoka Miyazaki (JPN). She did really well in first set where she was leading till 18th point but couldn't convert and lost 19-21 and last set was just bloodbath. While Ayush lost 18-21, 17-21 against Chou Tien Chen (TPE). Very close games but experience of CTC helped him win the match.

Great performances by both of them against top-10 players. Can't wait to watch them next week at Thailand Open along with other Indian players.

[pancakesdonuts]

Some more great news... 16 year old Tanvi Sharma wins Denmark IC pulling multiple upsets. She beat both Indonesian teens to win the title. One of them is Asian Junior Champ 2023. She moves to #70 in the rankings.

[sameerph]

Good show by Ayush, Unnati and Tanvi. Aysush is 20, Unatti 17 and Tanvi 16. Are the one of the youngest ranked in their age group ? Unfortunately, BWF ranking page does not show age of the players. Is there any other website which shows that or one has to go thru individual player pages ?

[pancakesdonuts]

Ayush is 3rd best in his age group. Alex Lanier (FRA) is already top-10 and Alwi Farhan (INA) is top-30. So, he has to catch up his peers.

In WS, current junior players in Top-100:

Tomoka Miyazaki (2006) (JPN) - #7
Rakshitha Ramraj (2007) (IND) - #41
Unnati Hooda (2007) (IND) - #45
Pitchamon Opatniputh (2007) (THA) - #55
Anmol Kharb (2007) (IND)- #68
Tanvi Sharma (2008) (IND) - #70
Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari (2006) (INA) - #73
Kaloyana Nalbantova (2006) (BUL) - #77
Shriyanshi Valishetty (2006) (IND) - #82
Ni Kadek Dhinda A. Pratiwi (2006) (INA) - #92

Tanvi and Unnati are the youngest players in the top-100. Every other teen is over 18 except them. Tanvi beat Puspitasari, Nalbantova and Pratiwi in Denmark IC. China does have the best set of juniors but they are barely playing any international tournaments right now.

Currently there is no website which shows age of players but there is a google sheet which shows live ranking, age and birth date of players run by x user @mswstracker. Here is the link:

[sameerph]

Thanks for extracting those details. So, based on this age group ranking we have 4 out of top 6 players in teens in world rankings. But, I guess as you said many Chinese juniors are not yet playing at senior level enough, so that could be the reason.

We will have to see if at least couple from Unnati, Rakshita, Anmol, Tanvi cohort reach top 10 level and even better if they reach Saina/Sindhu level ( WC/olympic medals).

Among men, Ayush seems to the only real hope as of now. Among little older ones, Lakshya is so inconsistent and seems to be in a mental funk since his loss from winning position in bronze level match in Paris, lets see if he can recover from this and Priyanshu Rajwat is just at this 30-40 ranking level.

[arjun2761]

^^^I hope to be proved wrong but I think Lakshya may have missed his best chance of a medal at Paris. Here's hoping that he can be a contender in LA but it is hard for me to see him being at his peak 3 years later as his game is built on quickness and athleticism which tends to decline as you get older.

[pancakesdonuts]

Lakshya will be almost 27 during LA 28. He should be at this peak.

[pancakesdonuts]

Anyway Indian challenge ends in Round of 16. Sen as usual lost in round 1. Unnati made it to ro16 and lost to top seed Chochuwong from Thailand. Ayush lost his 2nd qualifying match against 21 y/o Justin Hoh from Malaysia. He beat him twice last year. I guess he must be tired after SF last week.

Treesa/Gayatri lost their 2nd round match again new Japanese pair in straight sets. They should be easily winning these matches. Title drought in 2025 continues.

[sameerph]

In the Malyasian Masters 500, in mens singles 4 Indians made it to the second round- Satish Karunakaran upset third seed Taiwanse Tien Chen Chou, Ayush Shetty had a win over 30th ranked Wang, Kidambi Srikanth upset 13th ranked Chinese Lu Guang Zhu and Prannoy too won his match.

Today in second round, only Srikanth won against 33rd ranked Nhat Nyungen. After a long time, Srikanth having back to back wins against such higher ranked players.

In women singles, all 4 Indians lost in first round.

Apart from Srikanth, mixed doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto are thru to the QF.

[arjun2761]

Srikanth pulls of a gritty win over #18 T J Popov of FR! Since when did France start playing badminton?

Now faces #23 Y. Tanaka from Japan in the SF.

[sameerph]

Srikanth pulls of a gritty win over #18 T J Popov of FR! Since when did France start playing badminton?

France is having some good talent in mens singles now. In fact their 20 year old talent Alex Lanier is now ranked #9 and is the youngest player in top 10 and than they have Popov brothers who are ranked #18 and #24 respectively.

Anyway, first SF at this level for Srikanth in almost 3 years. Hope he can go further.

[Prem]

Kidambi Srikanth wins the Semi Final as well.
Beats the Japanese Y Tanaka in straight sets 21-18, 24-22
What an incredible story. Unseeded, played the qualifying and at world ranking of 65, Srikanth aged 32 now, reaches his first final in BWF Tour in 6 years!
Does he have enough in the tank to take on either world no 4 Li SF or no.8 Naraoka in the finals tomorrow.
Let’s hope he has and plays his best tomorrow.

[sameerph]

What an amazing run by Srikanth out of nowhere. He has shown here what he could do when he was fully focused.

Up against world #4 Chinese Li Shi Feng in the final tomorrow.