New Delhi [India], August 4 (ANI): Winning a World Junior title is commonly step one in the direction of greatness, however solely a handful of gamers go on to turn out to be World Champions on the senior stage. Akane Yamaguchi, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Ratchanok Intanon, Liu Shengshu and Dechapol Puavaranukroh have all accomplished that journey, turning junior success into World Championship glory.
As a few of the greatest stars in badminton return for the BWF World Championships India 2026 in New Delhi from August 17 to 23, they are going to be trying so as to add yet one more world title to their already glittering resumes.
-Akane Yamaguchi (Japan)
World Junior titles: 2013, 2014 (Women’s Singles)Senior World titles: 2021, 2022, 2025
Akane Yamaguchi introduced herself to the badminton world by changing into the primary Japanese ladies’s singles participant to win back-to-back BWF World Junior Championships. Her rise continued at lightning tempo, changing into the youngest-ever winner of a BWF Super Series title at simply 16 years outdated earlier than establishing herself as one in all Japan’s best shuttlers, as per a press launch.
Her senior profession has been equally outstanding. Yamaguchi is a three-time World Champion. She can be a two-time BWF World Tour Finals champion, an Asian Champion, has helped Japan win the Uber Cup, and has persistently remained among the many world’s top-ranked gamers for practically a decade. Heading into New Delhi, she stays one of many favourites for one more world title.
-Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand )
World Junior titles: 2017, 2018, 2019 (Men’s Singles)Senior World titles: 2023
No participant has dominated the World Junior Championships fairly like Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The Thai star stays the one males’s singles participant to win three consecutive World Junior crowns, underlining his standing as one in all badminton’s brightest younger abilities.
Since transferring to the senior circuit, Kunlavut has greater than lived as much as expectations. He turned Thailand’s first males’s singles World Champion in 2023, received the silver medal on the Paris 2024 Olympics, captured the 2025 Asian Championships title and have become the primary Thai males’s singles participant to succeed in World No. 1. Still solely in his mid-20s, he’s already among the many greatest stars in world badminton.
-Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand )
World Junior titles: 2009, 2010, 2011 (Women’s Singles)Senior World titles: 2013
Before Kunlavut, there was Ratchanok Intanon. The Thai icon received three successive World Junior Championships and was extensively thought to be badminton’s first teenage famous person of the trendy period. Her easy strokeplay and creativity made her one of many sport’s greatest points of interest.
She carried that promise seamlessly into the senior ranks by changing into the youngest-ever ladies’s singles World Champion in 2013 at simply 18 years of age. Intanon later climbed to World No. 1, received a number of BWF World Tour titles and has represented Thailand at 4 Olympic Games, remaining probably the most revered and skilled gamers on the worldwide circuit.
-Liu Shengshu (China)
World Junior titles: 2022 (Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles)Senior World titles: 2025 (Women’s Doubles)
Liu Shengshu loved a breakthrough 2022 World Junior Championships, profitable two gold medals in ladies’s doubles and combined doubles, highlighting her versatility as one in all China’s most promising doubles gamers.
Her transition to the senior circuit has been fast. Partnering Tan Ning, Liu Shengshu received the silver medal on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games earlier than capturing her maiden BWF World Championships title in ladies’s doubles in 2025, cementing the pair’s place among the many world’s main combos. The pair has rapidly established itself among the many strongest ladies’s doubles combos on this planet, making them critical contenders as soon as once more in New Delhi.
-Dechapol Puavaranukroh (Thailand)
World Junior titles: 2014 (Men’s Doubles)Senior World titles: 2021 (Mixed Doubles)
Although Dechapol received the World Junior title in males’s doubles, he discovered his best success after switching to combined doubles. His adaptability and tactical understanding helped him turn out to be one in all Thailand’s best doubles specialists. Partnering Sapsiree Taerattanachai, Dechapol captured the 2021 World Championships gold, reached World No. 1 and received a number of BWF World Tour titles. Dechapol will now look to win one other World Championships title, this time with Supissara Paewsampran on the BWF World Championships New Delhi 2026. (ANI)