Do I need special equipment?

No — just your smartphone. Mount it high behind the baseline with the full court in frame, or have a friend hold it. Higher, steadier angles give the AI more to work with.

How accurate is the AI analysis?

Kreeda is purpose-built for badminton - it measures your shots, footwork and court coverage from your video, and every number comes from what actually happened on court. It keeps improving with every analysis.

Can I use this if I'm a complete beginner?

Absolutely! Kreeda works for all skill levels from beginner to semi-pro. The AI adjusts feedback based on your level.

What if I don't have a coach?

That's the beauty of Kreeda-you don't need one to start. The AI gives you actionable feedback. When you're ready, connect with coaches in our marketplace.

Does it work offline?

You can record offline and upload when you have internet. Analysis requires connection but usually finishes in a couple of minutes.

What video format should I use?

Any format works! MP4, MOV, AVI—our system handles it. Keep clips up to 2 minutes for best results.

Is it also for doubles?

Not yet - Kreeda analyses singles rallies today, which is where it's sharpest. Doubles is in active testing and launches in October, bringing partner play and full-court coverage with it.

100%. Your videos and data are encrypted and never shared. You control who sees your content.

BWF World Championships 2026: Full Schedule, India’s Squad, Seeds and How to Watch

The 30th BWF World Championships runs 17–23 August 2026 at the Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi.
It is the first World Championships held in India since Hyderabad in 2009 — a 17-year gap.
India has entries in all five disciplines — four of them seeded.
There is no prize money. The winners take 14,500 ranking points, the most available at any event outside the Olympics.

For one week in August, the best badminton players in the world arrive in New Delhi. The BWF World Championships is the sport’s flagship individual event — the title every player outside an Olympic year wants most — and for the first time in 17 years it is being contested on Indian soil.

This is the guide: when each round is played, who India has entered, who they face first, what the seedings look like, how to get tickets, and how to watch. We will keep this page updated through the week as rounds resolve.

Schedule: day by day, in IST

Play begins at 09:00 IST each day. The opening rounds are staggered across the first two days to get a 64-player singles draw and 48-pair doubles draws through the first hurdle.

Date	Day	Rounds
17 August	Monday	Round of 64 begins (all disciplines)
18 August	Tuesday	Round of 64 concludes
19 August	Wednesday	Round of 32 (singles; some doubles played theirs on 18 August)
20 August	Thursday	Round of 16
21 August	Friday	Quarter-finals
22 August	Saturday	Semi-finals
23 August	Sunday	Finals — all five disciplines

Session times are confirmed the evening before once the order of play is published.

India’s entries

India has two entries in most disciplines and three in mixed doubles. Four of them are seeded.

Discipline	Player or pair	Seed	First round
Men’s singles	Lakshya Sen	14	Collins Valentine Filimon (AUT)
Men’s singles	Ayush Shetty	—	Shi Yuqi (CHN), top seed
Women’s singles	PV Sindhu	9	Sophia Noble (IRL)
Women’s singles	Unnati Hooda	—	Thet Htar Thuzar (MYA)
Men’s doubles	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy / Chirag Shetty	5	Bye to round of 32
Men’s doubles	MR Arjun / Hariharan	—	Guildea / Reynolds (IRL)
Women’s doubles	Treesa Jolly / Gayatri Gopichand	—	Lopez / Rodriguez (ESP)
Women’s doubles	Simran Singhi / Kavipriya Selvam	—	Carulla / Jimenez (ESP)
Mixed doubles	Dhruv Kapila / Tanisha Crasto	15	Bye to round of 32
Mixed doubles	Rohan Kapoor / G Ruthvika Shivani	—	Jonathan Lai / Crystal Lai (CAN)
Mixed doubles	Ashith Surya / Amrutha Pramuthesh	—	Sonmez / Bektas (TUR)

The draw has been unkind to exactly one Indian and generous to another. Ayush Shetty, 21 years old and playing his first World Championships, drew Shi Yuqi — world number one, defending champion, top seed — in the opening round. Shetty is not a soft draw for anyone; he took Asian Championships silver in April, beating Li Shifeng and Jonatan Christie along the way. But this is the hardest possible first match, and it happens in front of a home crowd.

PV Sindhu, by contrast, opens against world number 141 Sophia Noble. Seeded ninth, India’s only world champion has a genuinely favourable route into the second week.

One name to strike from your expectations: HS Prannoy is not in the draw. He sits on the reserve list, outside the two-per-nation quota. And Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached a career-high world ranking of 11 in late 2024, arrive unseeded.

The top seeds

Discipline	Seed 1	Seed 2
Men’s singles	Shi Yuqi (CHN) — defending champion	Kunlavut Vitidsarn (THA)
Women’s singles	An Se-young (KOR)	Akane Yamaguchi (JPN) — defending champion
Men’s doubles	Kim Won-ho / Seo Seung-jae (KOR) — defending champions	Fajar / Fikri (INA)
Women’s doubles	Liu Shengshu / Tan Ning (CHN) — defending champions	Fukushima / Matsumoto (JPN)
Mixed doubles	Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping (CHN)	Jiang / Wei (CHN)

Seedings are based on the BWF World Rankings of 31 July 2026.

Two absences shape the field. Viktor Axelsen retired in April 2026 after chronic back problems and surgery the previous year, which makes this the first World Championships of the post-Axelsen era in men’s singles. And the defending mixed doubles champions, Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, have withdrawn following Toh’s ACL surgery — leaving that title wide open.

In women’s singles, An Se-young returns as top seed after an injury-disrupted mid-season. She has not won a world title since 2023.

Tickets

Tickets are sold exclusively through BookMyShow, across six categories. Prices run from ₹499 at the early-bird general-access end to ₹5,500 for premium seating, with more than 6,000 seats available to the public each session. The Indira Gandhi Arena has been reconfigured for the event, with additional seating installed.

How to watch

In India, the championships are streaming on JioCinema. The BWF also runs live coverage on its official BWF TV YouTube channel, though which sessions are geo-available in India varies by day and by rights agreement. Check your local listing on the morning of each session — coverage on day one is usually split across multiple courts.

Common questions

Is there prize money at the BWF World Championships?

No. Unlike the BWF World Tour events, the World Championships awards no prize money at all. What players compete for is ranking points and the title itself.

How many ranking points does the winner get?

The champion in each discipline receives 14,500 BWF World Ranking points — the highest available at any event alongside the Olympic Games. The runner-up takes 12,500 and the losing semi-finalists 10,500.

Is the 2026 World Championships an Olympic qualifier?

No. Qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games runs from 3 May 2027 to 30 April 2028, so Delhi 2026 falls entirely outside that window. It affects the BWF World Ranking but does not count toward Olympic qualification, and it is not part of the HSBC Race to Finals, which counts World Tour events only.

Where is the BWF World Championships 2026 being held?

At the Indira Gandhi Arena in Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi, from 17 to 23 August 2026.

When did India last host the World Championships?

In 2009, in Hyderabad. Delhi 2026 ends a 17-year gap.

How much do tickets cost?

Between ₹499 and ₹5,500 depending on category, sold exclusively through BookMyShow.

What to watch for

Beyond the results, this is a tournament worth watching closely for a reason that has nothing to do with the draw. It is the last World Championships that will ever be played under 21-point scoring: the BWF has adopted a best-of-three-games-to-15 format from January 2027. The rallies you see in Delhi are the end of an era in how the sport is scored.

We have written separately about what the switch to 3×15 actually changes, and about how badminton smash speed is measured — relevant this week, because the man who holds the world record for the fastest smash ever hit is in the men’s doubles draw.

Kreeda is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Badminton World Federation. Schedule, entries and broadcast details are subject to change; confirm session times and listings on the day.