New Delhi: India’s hopes of winning a medal at the BWF World Championships now rest on its doubles stars after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand booked places in the quarterfinals, while PV Sindhu and Ayush Shetty exited the singles competition.
Seventh seeds Satwik and Chirag produced a spirited comeback to defeat Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Yap Roy King 21-23, 21-19, 21-17 in a gripping pre quarterfinal clash. After receiving a first round bye and a second round walkover, the Indian pair made a winning tournament debut and moved within one victory of securing a third World Championships medal, having previously won bronze in 2022 and 2025.
In women’s doubles, Treesa and Gayatri delivered one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by beating Japan’s seventh seeded duo Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi 21-16, 21-12. Their victory makes them the first Indian women’s doubles pair to reach the World Championships quarterfinals since 2015 and marks another milestone in their impressive comeback journey.
India’s singles challenge, however, came to an end. Two time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu narrowly missed out on a record sixth World Championships medal after losing 11-21, 21-15, 17-21 to China’s world No. 3 Wang Zhi Yi. Sindhu fought back brilliantly after dropping the opening game, but could not capitalize in a tense decider despite holding a late advantage.
Earlier, 21 year old Ayush Shetty’s dream run ended with a 19-21, 11-21 defeat to Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan. Shetty had entered the round after stunning reigning world champion Shi Yu Qi, making his breakthrough campaign one of India’s standout stories despite the defeat.
With the singles events over, India’s medal aspirations now rest entirely on its doubles contenders.
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