Hapless singles, hopeful doubles – India’s 2025 Sudirman Cup story

As India entered the 2025 Sudirman Cup in Xiamen, China, hopes for victory were muted. In fact, an adverse result was all that was anticipated.

India has never finished on the podium at the Sudirman Cup – a tournament first held in 1989 – and with a depleted squad and without the services of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, it was always going to be an uphill climb.

Sindhu and Prannoy disappoint

PV Sindhu’s display against Line Kjaersfeldt in the opening tie against Denmark, summed up everything that is wrong with Indian badminton at the moment.

The double Olympic medalist led 20-16 in the first game and still went on to concede the opening game 20-22, losing six points in a row.

In the second, the Indian had an even better advantage, leading 19-12. Thereafter, she squandered eight consecutive points as the Danish shuttler went on to win it 23-21 to wrap up the match in straight games.

This is what Indian badminton has been about in recent times – digging themselves into deeper holes from a position of apparent advantage.

Closing out matches has been a problem area identified by even causal viewers, but the ones in the thick of the action have been unable to arrest the slide.

Even HS Prannoy, for example, in the second tie against Indonesia went down after being a game up against Jonatan Christie.

The two singles matches were India’s biggest cause for concern during the campaign. Stalwarts Sindhu and Prannoy failed to impress, both losing every match they played.

The fact that Lakshya Sen did not feature in a single tie and was confined to the coaching chair did not help either.

These results were just an extension of a worrying trend in singles for India in the recent past.

Sindhu has been far from her best since winning the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold nearly three years back.

A bout with chikungunya threw a spanner in the works for Prannoy even before the 2024 Paris Olympics last year and the 32-year-old is yet to reach his best.

While he did display brief spells of his formative brilliance at the 2025 Sudirman Cup, his drop to 30 in the world ranking doesn't augur well at all.

Sen, on the other hand, whose biggest rival has been consistency (or lack thereof), wasn’t fully fit to play, forcing India to rely on Prannoy.

India’s only saving grace at the tournament were the young Anupama Upadhyay and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, who won their respective singles matches, albeit against lower-ranked opponents in the dead rubber against England.

The statistic that no shuttler from the country is ranked in top-15 of the world across both singles disciplines, encapsulates the disarray Indian badminton finds itself in.

A ray of hope in doubles

Amidst the self-destruction in singles, the doubles discipline continued to give India some hope about the future.

Tanisha Crasto, in particular, has grown into an adaptable all-round player. The 21-year-old has found ways to succeed, no matter who she is paired with.

The 2025 Sudirman Cup, if anything, will be remembered for Crasto.

She formed a scratch pair with Shruti Mishra in women’s doubles and won both matches they played together – against Denmark and against England.

She also found a hard-fought victory alongside Dhruv Kapila in mixed doubles against Indonesia despite losing the opening game 10-21.

Crasto, blessed with a ferocious attacking game, was all over the court in the match. She has added the soft touch play to her arsenal and has emerged as one of India’s most improved shuttlers over the last few months.

She was also paired up with Sathish for the mixed doubles match against England, but went down after a hard fought three-game battle.

The men’s doubles pair of Hariharan and Ruban had big shoes to fill in the absence of Satwik-Chirag. Though the duo did not win a single match in three attempts, they showed stomach for a fight.

Hariharan and Ruban seem to enjoy the fast, flat exchanges – but there’s still a long way to go for the two 21-year-olds from Tamil Nadu.

Indian badminton, thus, is at a critical juncture.

While doubles – long considered to be the country’s weakness in team events – is now stepping up, there prevails a sense of despair and helplessness around singles.