Defending champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn advances at BWF World Championships

PARIS – Thai third seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn got his title defence up and running at the Badminton World Federation World Championships on Aug 26, defeating El Salvador’s Uriel Canjura in the round of 64.

Kunlavut, 24, who was victorious at the 2023 edition in Copenhagen, clinched a 21-11, 21-17 victory over his opponent, also 24, in 49 minutes at the Adidas Arena in Paris.

Despite an early medical timeout for Canjura, Kunlavut maintained his focus while leveraging his superior experience and skill.

The first game saw the Thai pull away quickly, winning 21-11. Canjura, making his championship debut, was better in the second stanza, but Kunlavut proved too strong. He will next face South Korea’s Kim Byung-jae.

As the 2023 world champion and 2024 Olympic silver medallist, Kunlavut is the favourite to retain his title, especially with Paris Games champion Viktor Axelsen absent as he recovers from injury.

Earlier in the day, Indonesian fifth seed Jonatan Christie got the better of Germany’s Matthias Kicklitz 21-15, 21-5 to also advance to the next round.

“You must be more patient and not make mistakes, because in this tournament, it’s really tough from your mental, from your physical (side), so you must focus point by point,” Christie, 27, said on Olympics.com immediately after his match on what advice he will give himself.

His compatriot Anthony Ginting battled hard but eventually fell to French 15th seed Toma Junior Popov 21-18, 19-21, 25-23.

Ginting, 28, missed six months of the 2025 season following surgery for a shoulder issue. He has played in two tournaments since his return – the China Open and Japan Open in July – but suffered early exits in both.

Now No. 74 in the world, his protected ranking ensured his place at the world championships, but defeat meant that there is still some way to go to regain full fitness, despite putting up a good fight.

In the women’s competition, fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi thrashed Australia’s Bernice Teoh 21-7, 21-2 in just 26 minutes.

The Japanese, 28, won the world title in 2021 and 2022 and will take on Kim Ga-eun of South Korea in the round of 32.

Japan’s teen sensation Tomoka Miyazaki, meanwhile, kick-started her maiden world championships with a win, but admitted nerves almost got the better of her.

Lauded as the future face of the sport in Japan, 19-year-old Miyazaki is already in the top 10 in the world rankings and a junior world champion.

The eighth seed held her nerve to pull off a 16-21, 21-12, 21-14 win over Turkey’s Neslihan Arin.

“In the first game, I felt like I was struggling because my control wasn’t there,” she said.

“The opponent was big and controlling the shots was difficult, so I ended up forcing it a bit... I felt I couldn’t move smoothly or think clearly and it was a really tough (first) game for me.”

Meanwhile, Singapore’s world No. 22 mixed doubles pair Terry Hee and Jin Yujia beat 71st-ranked Algerian siblings Koceila and Tanina Mammeri 21-10, 21-18 to set up a second-round clash with Thailand’s world No. 3 Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran on Aug 27.

However, the Republic’s world No. 59 men’s doubles pair Wesley Koh and Junsuke Kubo’s run ended in the second round after they were beaten 21-17, 21-12 by top-ranked duo Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho of South Korea, despite the Singaporeans leading 14-9 in the first game and 7-0 in the second. AFP