We are two weeks into the new badminton season of 2025 and things have been rather subdued from an Indian perspective, despite the India Open at home last week.
Best results for Indian players in this period:
Satwik-Chirag semifinals at Malaysia Open 1000 and India Open 750
With new coaches in for Sindhu and women's singles as a group (Irwansyah Adi Pratama) and Satwik-Chirag (Tan Kim Her), it's a time of transition as the players look to rediscover lost form on the BWF Tour.
With this in mind, we look at how this start has affected the BWF rankings of the top Indian players, and what that tells us about the state of play:
(Note: BWF rankings update every Tuesday and for this purpose, we will look at the Top 32 as that is the tournament's draw size.)
Men's Singles Rankings
Lakshya Sen, 10 (+2)
HS Prannoy, 31 (-5)
Despite the two first-round losses, Lakshya's mid-2024 resurgence gave him a good bump up the ranks and he is close to be being seeded as a Top 8 player again. To make that happen, though, he needs to start stringing wins together (especially as other big players start finding their feet on tour)
HS Prannoy had a steep 5-place drop this week as he was unable to match his semifinal run at India Open last year. He has, of course, been away from the Tour for five months with multiple health issues, and is finding his feet again this year.
The world No 1 remains China's Shi Yu Qi while reigning Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen climbed a spot to world No 4 after his India Open win.
P.S. Kiran George's heartening quarterfinal run after being promoted from reserves at the India Open gave him a 3-spot boost up to world No 35.
Women's Singles Rankings
PV Sindhu, 12 (+4)
Malvika Bansod, 27 (--)
Sindhu, who reached the quarterfinal in her first tournament of 2025, looked sharper and faster but could not handle the three-game toil against a top player - an increasingly familiar pattern. It did, though, give her a four rank boost as she looks to regain form.
Malvika had a tough start to 2025, running into world No 4 Han Yue in the last two weeks... but she did show incremental growth by taking a game off her in Delhi.
The world No 1, undisputed at that, remains South Korea's An Se Young (she also won the India Open).
Men's Doubles Rankings
Satwik-Chirag, 9 (--)
The only Indian pair in the Top 40 of men's doubles went from reaching the finals of these two Opens to losing the semis at both this year. All four losses, though, followed a familiar pattern -- being outdone by a tactical plan of flat exchanges, no height and crafty use of the net. This is a blueprint that most opponents are figuring out and they, along with new coach Tan, will need to figure a solution ASAP.
The world No 1 pair remain Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, despite their horror start to the season with opening round losses.
Women's Doubles Rankings
Treesa-Gayatri, 9 (--)
Ashwini-Tanisha, 19 (+3)
Neither Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand nor Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto have had a great start to the year with early exits despite being seeded in both tournaments they played.
Ashwini-Tanisha have moved up due to upheaval in the top pairs (changing partners), but the two duos have been unable to capitalise on it so far.
The top pair are South Korea's Baek Hana and Lee Sohee, who got there after China's indomitable pair of Jia Yifan and Chen Qingchen parted ways.
Mixed Doubles Rankings
Sikki-Sumeeth, 31
Aadya-Sathish, 32
This is a curious discipline for India, with no big results but a sizeable number of pairs making major main draws despite early losses.
The world No 1 pair remains China's Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.