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PV Sindhu beat Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang 21-16, 21-17 to reach the women’s singles round of 16 at the BWF World Championships 2026, keeping alive her bid for a record sixth medal at the tournament. Unnati Hooda’s maiden World Championships ended in a 23-21 third game against 13th seed Michelle Li. Top seed An Se-young and third seed Wang Zhiyi both advanced in straight games.
New Delhi, India: Two Indians walked onto the Indira Gandhi Arena courts on Wednesday chasing a place in the last 16. One left with it. The other left having pushed a seeded opponent to within two points of a decider she deserved to win.
For PV Sindhu, the round of 32 was a test rather than a formality. The ninth seed beat Wen Yu Zhang, ranked 49th in the world, 21-16, 21-17 in 35 minutes — comfortable on the scoreline, less so in the passages where the Canadian threatened to draw level.
Sindhu Answers Every Push
Sindhu opened with four straight points and never surrendered the initiative, though Zhang closed to within striking distance more than once. The Indian led 11-9 at the first interval and pulled clear again to 19-15 in the second, responding each time the Canadian found rhythm.
At 31, Sindhu is chasing history rather than a breakthrough. Her five World Championships medals — one gold, two silver, two bronze — already equal China’s Zhang Ning for the most in women’s singles history. A sixth would put her alone at the top of that list, and she is attempting it in front of a home crowd for the first time since India last staged these championships in 2009.
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The reward is severe. Wang Zhiyi, the world No. 3 and third seed, awaits in the round of 16. The Chinese leads their head-to-head 5-3 and has beaten Sindhu twice already this season, at the Malaysia Open and the Badminton Asia Championships, though Sindhu got the better of her at this stage of last year’s World Championships. Sindhu was clear-eyed about the task afterwards, noting that against athletes of that level there are no easy points.
Wang made her own progress look effortless, dismissing Malaysia’s Karupathevan Letshanaa 21-16, 21-9.
Two Points From the Quarter-Final Bracket
Unnati Hooda’s exit was the harder one to watch. The 18-year-old, playing her first World Championships, took the opening game against Michelle Li 21-11 and looked in command.
The 13th seed responded with a 21-9 second game, and the decider became a grind that neither player could break open. Hooda pushed Li all the way to 23-21 before the Canadian, a former Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games champion, finally closed it out. Li’s 11-21, 21-9, 23-21 win ends India’s women’s singles interest beyond Sindhu.
The Seeds Hold at the Top
Where the men’s draw has shed five of its sixteen seeds, the women’s has been considerably more orderly.
An Se-young, the top seed and Paris 2024 Olympic champion, needed 21-15, 21-11 against Indonesia’s Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan. Sixth seed Putri Kusuma Wardani was equally untroubled against Petra Maixnerová, winning 21-9, 21-12, and eighth seed Tomoka Miyazaki saw off Ukraine’s Yevheniia Kantemyr 21-14, 21-13.
The exception was Mia Blichfeldt. The 16th seed needed all three games and every point of them to get past Thailand’s Supanida Katethong, edging a 22-20 decider after losing the second 11-21 — the tightest finish of the round.
What India Takes Into the Weekend
Sindhu is now the last Indian standing in women’s singles, as Ayush Shetty is in the men’s draw. Both carry the host nation’s hopes into a second week that India waited seventeen years to stage — and Sindhu, uniquely, carries the chance to become the most decorated women’s singles player in the history of these championships.
Results — Round of 32, Women’s Singles
[1] A. Se-young d. T. R. Wiryawan 21-15, 21-11
[3] W. Zhiyi d. K. Letshanaa 21-16, 21-9
[6] P. K. Wardani d. P. Maixnerová 21-9, 21-12
[8] T. Miyazaki d. Y. Kantemyr 21-14, 21-13
[9] P. V. Sindhu d. W. Y. Zhang 21-16, 21-17
[13] M. Li d. U. Hooda 11-21, 21-9, 23-21
[16] M. Blichfeldt d. S. Katethong 21-19, 11-21, 22-20
Venue: Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi
