All England Open 2025: Satwik-Chirag, PV Sindhu return to action – Preview

The prestigious All England Open Super 1000, the oldest badminton competition, is all set to commence on Tuesday in Birmingham.

The men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and women's singles shuttler PV Sindhu will lead India's charge for the tournament.

Both of them, along with Lakshya Sen and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, will mark a return to the BWF World Tour circuit after a break.

Also in contention for India will be HS Prannoy in men's singles, Malvika Bansod in women's singles, and the fast rising pair of Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila in mixed doubles.

India's highest representation, however, will be in women's doubles, where the 2024 Paris Olympian duo of Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa and the young Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra will join Treesa-Gayatri in the main draw.

What does the draw look like?

Rankireddy-Shetty, in men's doubles, will be the only seeded Indian players at the 2025 All England Open Super 1000. The top seeds from the previous edition are seeded seventh this time.

Rankireddy and Shetty will start their campaign against Denmark's Daniel Lundgaard-Mads Vestergaard. They have a potential quarter-final battle lined up against Malaysia's second seeds, Sze Fei Goh and Nur Izzudin.

The Malaysians had defeated the former world No 1 duo at the 2025 India Open Super 750 semi-finals in front of their home crowd earlier this year.

There will also be eyes on the women's doubles pair of Treesa-Gayatri, who made a name for themselves with their exploits at the All England Open. They made the semi-finals on their debut back in 2022 and replicated the performance a year later.

The highest ranked Indian women's doubles duo, however, had a horrid run last year, crashing out in the opening round. They would love to put that disappointment behind them when they go up against Shuo Yun Sung-Chien Hui Yu of Chinese Taipei in the first round.

While the opening match should not be a problem, Treesa-Gayatri could potentially run into the dangerous South Korean pair of Hye Jeong Kim and Hee Yong Kong in the second round. If they overcome that hurdle, the former world No 1 pair and Olympic silver medallist duo of Sheng Shu Liu and Ning Tan awaits them in the quarter-finals.

Crasto-Ponnappa, meanwhile, will start their campaign against Pei Shan Hsieh and En-Tzu Hung of Chinese Taipei, whereas Konjengbam and Mishra have to deal with top seeds Ha Na Baek-So Hee Lee straight up.

In the men's singles, there's a potential all-India clash in sight if both Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy make it to the quarterfinals. The road, though, is tough, with Prannoy having to deal with Toma Popov in the first round and either of Li Shi Feng or Anthony Ginting in the Round of 16.

Sen, meanwhile, will start against Japan's Koki Watanbe and will most likely face Jonatan Christie next.

PV Sindhu, in women's singles, has a much better draw compared to the previous edition, where she ran into An Se Young in just the second round.

The double Olympic medallist will face Ga Eun Kim in the first round and then possibly face China's Han Yue and the 2024 Paris Olympics medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the next two rounds.

Malvika Bansod will face off against Singapore's Jia Min Yeo in the opening round, with Japan's experienced Akane Yamaguchi next in line.

Indians in contention at 2025 All England Open

Men's Singles: Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy

Women's Singles: PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod

Men's Doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty

Women's Doubles: Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto, Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra

Mixed Doubles: Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila, Sathish Kumar Karnuakaran-Aadya Variyath, Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde

2025 All England Open Schedule

March 11 and 12: Round of 32

March 13: Round of 16

March 14: Quarter-finals

March 15: Semi-finals

March 16: Final

Where to Watch?

You can catch all the LIVE action from the 2025 All England Open Super 1000 on the BWF's YouTube channel