BWF Word Championships: An Seyoung, Kunlavut Vitidsarn Ready To Defend Crowns

The BWF Word Championships will bring together the top shuttlers of the world together in Paris once again a year after the city hosted them at the Olympics.

The best of the badminton players will gather at the French capital’s Adidas Arena to decide the world champions.

The 2025 BWF World Championships will be from 25-31 August. All eyes will be on defending champions An Seyoung and Kunlavut Vitidsarn having won the singles event in the women’s and men’s division respectively.

An Seyoung, The women’s world number one, who won Olympic gold in this very arena last year, has gone from strength to strength this year.

Since her triumph last August at the Olympics, she has won seven titles on the BWF World Tour and entrenched herself at the top of the world rankings. The South Korean shuttler is the top favourite in any of the five events to win the world title.

A strong performance shown by An in the beginning of the 2025 season, where she emerged champion in the Malaysia and India Opens in January. In the next tournament in March, An won the Orléans Masters in France.

Carrying the momentum of that win, An won the All England Open the following week, gaining her second Super 1000 titles of the year. An continued her pursuit for S1000 “clean sweep” by winning the Indonesia Open in June. In July, she extended her good form, winning the Japan Open.

On the men’s side, the two-time Olympic champ Viktor Axelsen of Danmark player is not competing due to injury. Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the defending champion, enters as only the third seed, behind Shi Yuqi and Anders Antonsen, each looking for their first worlds titles.

Vitidsarn began the 2025 BWF World Tour by reaching the quarter-finals at the Malaysia Open. Despite an early loss at the India Open, he went on to win the Indonesia Masters.

In April, Vitidsarn overcame Lu Guangzu in the Asian Championships and become the first ever men’s singles title winner from Thailand. He then reached a peak ranking of number 2 in the BWF World rankings released on 15 April 2025.

Vitidsarn extended his form by winning his home tournament, Thailand Open in three sets match against Anders Antonsen.

In June, Vitidsarn clinched the Singapore Open in dominating fashion against Lu Guangzu which shot himself up into the number one in men’s singles ranking, thus becoming the first Thai ever to achieve such honour in the history.

Also Read: BWF World Championships 2025: Top 7 Matchups To Watch