BWF World Championships 2026: Sindhu seeded ninth, Satwik-Chirag are fifth

New Delhi:Japan Open champion PV Sindhu will be seeded ninth, and the 2022 Asian Games gold medallist duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has been handed the fifth seeding for the upcoming BWF World Championships 2026 to be played at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi from August 17 to 23.

India has two entries in each of the five categories of the championships, with at least one seeded entry in four of them.

Apart from Sindhu and Satwik-Chirag, former World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen, seeded 14th in men’s singles, and the mixed doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto are seeded 15th. Sindhu is one of the few players in the Badminton World Championship to win a complete set of medals between 2013 and 2019, winning the gold medal in the 2019 edition at Basel, Switzerland.

While the players qualified for the prestigious championships based on their world rankings of April 28, 2026, the seedings were decided on the basis of world rankings on July 28, 2026.

Men’s singles World Champion Shi Yuqi of China and South Korea’s women’s singles star An Se Young are the top seeds in their respective categories.

Women’s singles World Champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan is seeded second while the third and fourth spots have gone to Wang Zhi Yi and Chen Yufei of China.

The draw for the championships will take place here on Wednesday, and the final seedings could change if any seeded players withdraw before then.

South Korea’s Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae are expected to be at the top of the men’s doubles seeding chart, with China’s Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning getting the top billing in women’s doubles. Their compatriots Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping are seeded number one in mixed doubles.

The 30th edition of the BWF World Championship will have 382 players competing in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles competitions.

IANS