BWF World Championships 2023: Emerging badminton stars to watch in Copenhagen
Olympics.com picks five badminton shuttlers or doubles pairs who have emerged onto the global scene and could cause an upset at the 2023 BWF World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark (21–27 August).
Badminton
This year's 2023 BWF World Championships in badminton take place in the Danish capital Copenhagen from 21–27 August.
The defending champions including Viktor Axelsen and Yamaguchi Akane are expected to perform once more, and are among the favourites to do well.
But there are also some of the new generation already beginning to make waves, with many of them among the top seeds in Copenhagen. Olympics.com has picked out one player or pair from each of the five categories to keep an eye on in Denmark.
Men's singles: Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand)
Kunlavut has had a remarkable last 18 months or so.
The 22-year-old Thai played mostly on the second-tier BWF International Challenge circuit up till as recently as 2019, and had always been a promising youth player, winning three straight world junior titles from 2017 through 2019. But the step up to the seniors and World Tour events was complicated for him as the pandemic curtailed events across the globe.
After reaching the BWF World Tour Finals during the second pandemic-affected 2021 season, a runner-up finish at that event to Axelsen sparked a meteoric rise for the youngster.
The 2022 season was Kunlavut's breakthrough: he clinched his maiden World Tour title with a win in March at the Super 300-level German Open before winning Southeast Asian Games gold in Hanoi in May against the then-world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Perhaps propelled by that confidence-boosting win, Kunlavut went on a run at last year's World Championships in Tokyo, making it all the way to the final before losing, fairly comfortably, to Axelsen.
However, 2023 has brought continued success as the Thai added two more titles to his honours, including beating Axelsen for the first time in the Super 750 India Open final as well as securing his home Thailand Open.
Everything is ripe for Kunlavut to impress on the World Championship stage once more.
Women's singles: Han Yue (People's Republic of China)
Fujian-born Han may be in the shadow of her more illustrious Chinese counterparts Chen Yufei and He Bingjiao, but the 23-year-old is perhaps the most in-form shuttler entering Copenhagen. Why?
That's because Han won the gold medal as recently as 7 August at the Summer World University Games in Chengdu, the last major event on the badminton calendar ahead of the World Championships.
Han, who has made a spot in the top 10 of the world rankings her own since February (with the exception of a single week in April), has also reached the final of the Thailand Masters this year and the last four at the Malaysia Masters.
She will also have fond memories of Denmark, having been part of the Chinese women's team that won the 2020 Uber Cup in Aarhus in October 2021. In Copenhagen, Han will be the ninth seed.
Men's doubles: Liang Weikeng / Wang Chang (P.R. China)
Liang has had an interesting badminton career. After winning world junior bronze and Asian junior silver in 2018 with Shang Yichen, Liang took time away from badminton in 2019.
He only returned with Wang Chang in 2022, but the partnership has clicked very quickly. A surprise team from the qualifying rounds in that year's Indonesia Masters, Liang / Wang reached an unexpected final, ending up as runners-up, before going on to secure a first career title at the prestigious Japan Open.
This season has seen further success: two wins and two other final appearances on the World Tour, with titles claimed at the India and Thailand Opens and runner-up finishes at the Malaysia and Singapore Opens.
That run of form has been enough to propel this pair up to third in the world and therefore status as third seeds in their debut World Championships together.
Women's doubles: Benyapa Aimsaard / Nuntakarn Aimsaard (Thailand)
The only thing standing in the Aimsaard sisters' way of improving their world ranking (currently ninth) is perhaps the strength of the women's doubles field at the very top.
They have certainly performed when needed, reaching two finals already this season: at the Thailand Masters and Thailand Open, finishing as winners and runners-up respectively at those events.
Benyapa and Nuntakarn's breakthrough season was last year, when they reached an incredible six finals, winning the India, Vietnam, and Hylo Opens and finishing runners-up at the Korea and Australian Opens and World Tour Finals.
The Aimsaards have shown they can stick it with the very best in women's doubles – and what better place to prove that than the World Championships?
Mixed doubles: Kim Won-ho / Jeong Na-eun (Republic of Korea)
Kim is one of the many doubles players who will be pulling double duty – excuse the pun – at the World Championships. In addition to playing men's doubles with Choi Sol-gyu (where they are 12th seeds), it is perhaps in mixed doubles with partner Jeong Na-eun where he could really make his mark.
His mother is Atlanta 1996 mixed doubles Olympic champion Gil Young-ah – quite the footsteps to follow in. Kim's partnership with Jeong is a fairly recent one, but one that has already made its mark.
The pair reached their first World Tour final together at the Australian Open at the end of 2022 and secured another runner-up finish at this year's German Open, before coming from behind to score a stunning win at the Thailand Open against home favourites Dechapol Puavaranukroh / Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Seeded sixth in Copenhagen, could this young pair aged 24 and 23 pull off a few upsets?