China Masters 2025: Women's Bad Record Fails To End

Putri Kusuma Wardani in the quarter-finals of the China Masters 2025 against Akane Yamaguchi (doc. PBSI).

JAKARTA Putri Kusuma Wardani failed to end her bad record against Akane Yamaguchi when they faced off in the quarter-finals of the China Masters 2025.

The 23-year-old badminton player failed to qualify for the semifinals after losing to the fourth seed from Japan in two straight games 14-21 and 11-21 on Friday, 19 September 2025.

In this clash, Putri took the lead three times over Akane in the first game including at the interval, but lost momentum afterwards. Meanwhile, in the second game Akane appeared dominant after 3-3.

"At the beginning of the first game until the interval, I was in control of the game, but after that until the end of Akane continued to control. I couldn't get out of the pressure," said Putri.

This result extends Putri's record of never winning over the former world number one. From a total of five clashes, Putri was even recorded as stealing only one game.

The record occurred when they met in the semifinals of the 2025 BWF World Championships in August in Paris, France. At that time, Akane managed to come out as champion after beating Chen Yufei from China in the final.

"Overall, nothing has changed from Akane's game compared to the previous meeting. It's just that, today he did a lot of speculation, an unexpected blow that made it difficult for me to read the ball," said Putri.

Putri will next play in the Korea Open 2025 Super 500 BWF event. In the tournament, the Tangerang-born badminton player will play himself because Gregoria Mariska Tunjung is certain to be absent.

"There is still a Korea Open next week, I have to increase my focus and consistency in playing on the field. I also have to be more sensitive to seeing changes in the opponent's pattern in the middle of the match," he said.