World Championships: Shi Yu Qi, An Se Young Get Top Billing

Men’s singles defending champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn has been seeded third for the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2025.

The Thai, who won three tournaments in a row this season, will be among the favourites at the World Championships, which will be played in the Adidas Arena, venue of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at which he finished runner-up.

The seeding for the World Championships is based on the World Ranking of Friday 8 August 2025.

Heading the list of 16 seeds is Shi Yu Qi, who is looking for his first world title. The Chinese earned his top seeding thanks to his stellar performances at most of the top-tier events this season. Shi won three of four HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournaments, which catapulted him to the top of the BWF World Rankings. Two-time world champion and double Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen withdrew after not being able to recover from back surgery in time.

An is the defending champion and top seed in women’s singles.

In women’s singles, world and Olympic champion An Se Young, winner of six World Tour events this year – including three Super 1000 tournaments – has earned the top seeding ahead of three Chinese: Wang Zhi Yi, Han Yue and Chen Yu Fei.

Two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi is seeded fifth.

In men’s doubles, Seo Seung Jae – who won the last world title with Kang Min Hyuk – is top seeded with his new partner Kim Won Ho, the two having dominated the season with five World Tour titles.

Malaysia and Indonesia’s strength in men’s doubles is evident, with three seeded pairs from each country.

In women’s doubles, Olympic silver medallists Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning, who have won five of their last six events, have the top seeding ahead of Malaysia’s Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan. China have two other pairs among the seeds: Jia Yi Fan/Zhang Shu Xian (No.6) and Li Yi Jing/Luo Xu Min (No.7).

China also have a strong presence in mixed doubles, holding the top two positions through Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping and Jiang Zhen Bang/Wei Ya Xin, besides Guo Xin Wa/Chen Fang Hui (No.7) and Cheng Xing/Zhang Chi (No.12).

Seeding report as of 8 August 2025

Men’s singles: