2025 BWF World Championships: Gregoria Loses, Putri KW Becomes A Single Hope

Women's singles badminton player Putri Kusuma Wardani at the 2025 BWF World Championship (doc. PBSI).

JAKARTA Putri Kusuma Wardani is the only hope of Indonesian women's singles remaining at the 2025 BWF World Championships (BWF World Championships 2025) after Gregoria Mariska Tunjung was eliminated.

Putri kept her dream in this tournament by defeating Japanese junior world champion Tomoka Miyazaki in the dominant appearance of two straight games 21-12 and 21-11 at Adidas Arena, Paris, France, on Thursday, August 28, 2025.

Tomoka started the journey in the first game well, scoring two points to press his opponent. However, Putri held him in three consecutive points to take the lead.

Tomoka gave a quick response with two points to bring him back ahead. However, the moment immediately disappeared after Putri scored six consecutive points to stay away and not be overtaken again.

In the second game, Tomoka was forced to rise from behind to take the lead 3-2. However, after that he got the chance to take the lead just twice.

Putri got momentum after she came back from 5-6 behind. Three points in a row after that brought her ahead and was not overtaken by her opponent until the end.

In the last eight, Putri will wait for the winner of second seed Wang Zhi Yi of China against former Pusarla V. Sindhu world champion from India, who this year has the status of 15th seed.

"This is my first final quarter for the World Championships. Hopefully I can do my best again tomorrow," said Putri after the victory.

Moments after Putri's victory, it was Gregoria's turn to swallow a bitter pill. The 2017 junior world champion had to bury his dream after losing against South Korean singles Sim Yu-jin, two straight games 15-21 and 18-21.

This is Gregoria's second defeat against Sim from a total of eight of their clashes. In addition, this was his first defeat in the last four clashes.

Losing Gregoria made Putri now bear the burden alone to end the drought of the Indonesian women's singles gold medal since Susi Susanti did so in the 1993 edition.