New Delhi, 03 August (H.S.): The next stop of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour will be the Korea Masters 2026, where Indian shuttlers will look to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the BWF World Badminton Championships scheduled to be held in New Delhi this month.
The Super 300 tournament, being held from August 4 to 9, will provide players with a crucial opportunity to earn valuable ranking points and boost their confidence ahead of the prestigious global event.
The 18th edition of the tournament will be played at the Asan Yi Sun-sin Gymnasium in Asan city, South Korea. The previous three editions were held in Gwangju (2022 and 2023) and Iksan (2024 and 2025). This year, the tournament carries a total prize purse of USD 250,000, an increase from last year’s USD 240,000.
Leading India’s challenge in the men’s singles category will be Kidambi Srikanth, Kiran George, Tarun Mannepalli, Mithun Manjunath, Raunak Chouhan and Suneet Dayanand. Meanwhile, S. Shankar Muthusamy Subramanian and Tushar Suveer will compete in the qualifying rounds.
In women’s singles, all eyes will be on Tanvi Sharma, who has been in impressive form recently. Apart from her, Malvika Bansod, Anmol Kharb, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chaliha, Tanya Hemanth, Isharani Baruah, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Rakshita Sree Santhosh Ramraj and Mansi Singh will also represent India.
In men’s doubles, the Indian pairs of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy/Krishna Prasad Garaga, Bhargav Ram Arigela/Vishwatej Gobburu and Pochana Arjun Reddy/Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu will take the court.
In women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra and Sonali Singh/Ritika Thaker will carry India’s hopes. In mixed doubles, the combinations of Ishaan Bhatnagar/Shruti Mishra, Dhruv Rawat/Manisha K. and Satwik Reddy Kanapuram/Radhika Sharma are expected to put up a strong performance.
However, India will miss the services of several key players. In men’s singles, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sharma, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aalap Mishra, Orijit Chaliha, Pranay Shettigar and Ginpol Sona have withdrawn from the tournament. In women’s singles, Tasnim Mir and Samiya Imad Farooqui will also not participate.
Last year’s Korea Masters champions in Iksan were Jia Heng Jason Teh in men’s singles, Chiu Pin-Chian in women’s singles, Lee Jong-min/Wang Chan in men’s doubles, Hinata Suzuki/Nao Yamakita in women’s doubles and Kim Je-hyeon/Jeong Na-eun in mixed doubles.
For Indian shuttlers, the tournament will serve as an important platform to strengthen their form, match readiness and confidence before the BWF World Badminton Championships in New Delhi.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
