Putri KW Hopes for Indonesian Women's Singles at the World Championships

PARIS, THURSDAY – Indonesian athlete, Putri Kusuma Wardani, has advanced further in the Badminton World Championship. The quarter-finals will test her abilities at a higher level.

The women's singles badminton player became the first representative of Indonesia to secure a ticket to the quarter-finals after winning the third round at the Adidas Arena, Paris, France, on Thursday (28/8/2025). In a round that began to match seeded players against each other, Putri (the ninth seed) defeated Tomoka Miyazaki (the eighth seed) with a score of 21-12, 21-11.

Of the four representatives from Indonesia competing in the third round of the first session, Putri emerged as one of the two representatives who won. Jonatan Christie also advanced to the quarter-finals after defeating Lee Cheuk Yiu with a score of 21-19, 21-9. Meanwhile, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung was eliminated by Sim Yu-jin, and Jafar Hidayatullah/Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu lost to Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei.

The victory over Miyazaki, a 19-year-old athlete and the 2022 junior world champion, has led Putri to her first quarterfinal at the World Championship. Her journey has progressed further compared to when she lost in the first round in Tokyo 2022 and the second round in Copenhagen 2023.

In addition, her progress is further than that of her senior, Gregoria, who reached the quarter-finals at the 2023 World Championship. Gregoria was defeated by Sim with a score of 15-21, 18-21.

Putri has become the hope of Imam Tohari, the coach of the Indonesian women's singles team, to win a medal in the women's singles event. This means that the 23-year-old athlete must at least reach the semifinals.

"The quarter-finals will be my first at the World Championship. I hope I can do my best. I feel I have made progress in facing top players in the world. So, whoever the opponent is, I want to try to prove that I can," said Putri.

Putri will face Pusarla V Sindhu, who eliminated the second seed, Wang Zhi Yi, with scores of 21-19, 21-15. In their four encounters, Putri and Sindhu have each secured two victories. Putri won their most recent meeting, defeating Sindhu 21-12, 21-13 when Indonesia faced India in the group stage of the mixed team championship at the Sudirman Cup in China, at the end of April.

Nevertheless, these results cannot be used as a benchmark. Similarly, the nine defeats in the first or second rounds experienced by Sindhu in ten tournaments in 2025. The Indian athlete has the experience of standing on the podium at major events. She has won medals at five World Championships, including when she became the world champion in 2019. At the Olympics, the 30-year-old athlete won a silver medal in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and a bronze medal in Tokyo 2020.

I didn't take the right initiative, so I ended up making a mistake. - Gregoria Mariska Tunjung -

Therefore, in addition to her enthusiasm, Putri must be wary of Sindhu's ability to handle pressure in major tournaments. Putri should also avoid repeating the weaknesses she often displays when facing top players, especially those ranked in the top four.

In this year's BWF World Tour tournament, she repeatedly faced difficulties in decision-making during the moments leading up to the end of the matches. "I often lack consistency in choosing shots at the final points, even though I can hold on until point 15," said Putri while evaluating herself in preparation for the World Championship.

Imam stated that Putri changed her playing pattern several times when it was not necessary. She needs to correct this mistake by being more patient in accumulating points.

If she can perform solidly as she did when defeating Sindhu at the Sudirman Cup, Putri will become the first Indonesian women's singles player to win a medal at the World Championships since Lindaweni Fanetri in Jakarta 2015. The best results for Indonesian women's singles players at this highest level individual event were achieved when Susy Susanti became world champion in Birmingham 1993 and Verawaty Fajrin in Jakarta 1980.

The winner of the women's match between Putri and Sindhu will face Han Yue or the 2021 and 2022 world champion, Akane Yamaguchi. Meanwhile, the other quarter-final features two South Korean players, Sim Yu-jin, and the defending champion, An Se-young.

Following the defeat of 15-21, 18-21 against Sim, Gregoria stated that she often hesitated to make decisions in the first game. "As for approaching the opponent at a score of 18-19 in the second game, I did not take safe initiatives. Instead, I made mistakes. The opponent also dared to take risks in the final points, which made it difficult for me to defend," she said.

Meanwhile, Jafar Hidayatullah/Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu took home valuable lessons from their debut at the World Championship, particularly from their defeat in the third round. They lost to the fourth-seeded Malaysian pair, Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei, with scores of 21-14, 19-21, 17-21. This match marked the third defeat for Jafar/Felisha in three encounters with Chen/Toh, all of which have always gone to three games.

By Rionny Mainaky, the coach of the Indonesian mixed doubles national training team, Jafar/Felisha was actually expected to reach the final. Rionny reflected on the results of the semifinals at the China Open Super 1000 tournament last July.

However, that target is actually too high for a pair that has only recently begun to regularly compete in the BWF World Tour tournaments in 2025. Their experience against top world players in major events, such as the Super 750 and 1000 levels, is still quite limited.

For example, at 19-20 in the second game against Chen/Toh, Felisha performed a flick serve, a high serve aimed behind the receiver. However, a gust of wind blew toward the opponent's court, causing the shuttlecock to fall outside the court.

This simple mistake was made at a critical moment. "It was a valuable lesson for me to never do it again," said Felisha.

Intense competition was not only evident in the match between Jafar/Felisha and Chen/Toh. The encounter between evenly matched opponents in the third round resulted in most of the matches being more closely contested compared to the previous two rounds.

The third-seeded mixed doubles pair, Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Supissara Paewsampran, lost to the ninth-seeded Japanese pair, Hiroki Midorikawa/Natsu Saito, with scores of 21-8, 19-21, 16-21. In the competition among Malaysian players, the pair with a higher seed, Goh Soon Huat/Lai Shevon Jemie (6), was defeated by Hoo Pang Ron/Cheng Su Yin (15) with scores of 21-13, 21-23, 17-21.

Thus, the mixed doubles have lost two of the top four seeds. A surprise occurred in the second round when the top seeds, Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping, were defeated by Mathias Christiansen/Alejandra Boeje. However, the surprise from the Danish pair ended immediately in the third round as they lost to Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi with scores of 23-21, 21-12.

In the third round of the second session, which began at 17:00 local time or 22:00 WIB, Alwi Farhan and his senior partners in the men's and women's doubles faced challenges from top-tier players. Alwi confronted the defending champion and third seed, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, whom he forced to play three games in the first round of the China Open in July.

The winner of this match will face Jonatan, who qualified for the quarterfinals after being eliminated in the first round of the 2023 World Championship.

Alwi stated that the match against Vitidsarn at the China Open was one of the valuable experiences in facing top players in the world. He learned to perform consistently from the beginning to the end of the match and tried to understand their game when under pressure.

The 20-year-old Indonesian athlete brought that experience when facing the 12th seed, Lin Chun Yi, in the second round in Paris on Wednesday, winning with a score of 21-17, 22-20. So far, Alwi has been able to manage his emotions well in his debut at the World Championship.

The two Indonesian women's doubles pairs faced seeded players. Siti Fadia Silva Ramdhanti/Lanny Tria Mayasari competed against the second seeds, Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, while Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma/Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi faced Lee So-hee/Baek Ha-na (4).

The three meetings between Fadia/Lanny and Tan/Muralitharan that took place in 2025 always consisted of three games, with a 2-1 advantage for the Malaysian pair. Meanwhile, Febriana/Amalia consistently lost in their two encounters with Lee/Baek.

In the men's doubles, the Indonesian pair faced fellow seeded players. Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto (4) competed against the 2021 world champions, Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi (13), while Leo Rolly Carnando/Bagas Maulana (10) challenged the top seeds, Seo Seung-jae/Kim Won-ho.

Indonesia actually has three representatives in the men's doubles competition, but one other pair lost in the second round. In their first experience competing at the World Championship, Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani lost to Rasmus Kjaer/Frederik Soegaard with a score of 18-21, 21-18, 24-26.

Sabar/Reza had a very large chance of winning when they led 17-11 in the third game, but their opponents managed to equalize the score at 17-17. After that, the score difference was only one point until Kjaer/Soegaard emerged victorious.

"It is certainly sad because this is our debut at the World Championship and one of our dreams. We have tried to give our best, but there were some technical mistakes such as miscontrolling the ball and being too rushed. This allowed our opponents to equalize in the third game," said Sabar.

In addition to the mistakes they made, the final moments of the third game were marked by discomfort in Reza's thigh. "At 24-24, our serve was deemed a fault, and that was very detrimental," said Sabar, who reached the semifinals of the All England and the final of the 2025 Indonesia Open.