With events such as the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and the Olympics having taken place in the last year or so, badminton is gaining popularity across many nations.
In this article, I present to you my top 20 female badminton players in the world at the moment.
Yamaguchi currently holds the top spot in the world rankings for female badminton singles players. She comes from Japan and is 25 years old. Yamaguchi has already achieved quite a lot in the sport and will only be looking to add to her championships in the coming years.
Yamaguchi won back-to-back golds at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships. She also won gold at the 2018 Asian Games, though a medal at the Olympics has eluded her thus far.
24-year-old Chen Yufei ranks second in the world at the moment. Despite her short-spanned career, she’s already an Olympic gold-medal winner.
Yufei won the gold medal in Tokyo 2020. She’s a two-time Sudirman Cup gold medallist and also a one-time gold medalist at the Uber Cup. There’s undoubtedly a lot more to come from the youngster.
28-year-old Tai Tzu-Ying comes from Chinese Taipei and has been around the sport for a while now. She has several accolades to her name, among them being the prestigious medal she won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
She was also a gold medallist at the 2018 Asian Games. To add to her tally, she has two Asian Championship gold medals and a silver at the World Championships as well.
An Se-young ranks fourth both on this list and in the world rankings. She is, however, only 20 and has a long way to go in the sport. She has already shown great promise and has taken the fight to some of the best in the world.
Se-young already has a World Championship bronze medal to her name, one she won earlier this year in Tokyo. She also won a gold medal at the 2022 Uber Cup.
25-year-old Bingjiao is placed fifth in the world at the moment. She has achieved a reasonable amount of accolades thus far in her career.
Bingjiao is a two-time bronze medal winner at the World Championships. She has one gold medal each in the Sudirman Cup and the Uber Cup. She’s still young and has enough time to achieve much more in the sport.
Hailing from Thailand, 27-year-old Ratchanok Intanon currently sits sixth in world rankings. Some would say Intanon’s best days are behind her; she won most of her accolades in the previous decade.
Intanon won the World Championships in 2013 and also took the Asian Championship gold medal in 2015. She’s also a three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist.
The 27-year-old from Hyderabad is currently ranked seventh in the world and is coached by former South Korean player Park Tae-sang.
Sindhu has won accolades on two occasions at the world’s greatest sports event. Her first Olympic medal came in 2016 as she bagged the silver in Rio. She continued to shine at the Olympics by bagging the bronze in Tokyo 2020. She has also won back-to-back gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in the years 2018 and 2022. Her latest World Championship triumph came in 2019 as she took gold in Basel.
Wang Zhiyi is 22 years old and has a pretty good record at the junior level. She has two senior gold medals, one she won at the Asian Championships in 2022 and the other at the 2020 Uber Cup.
To add to her tally, she also has four gold medals at junior championships.
Carolina Marín currently sits ninth in the world rankings. She is 29 years old and has been around the sport for a while now.
Marín’s achievements in the sport are lengthy. She won an Olympic gold medal in 2016 and is a three-time World Champion as well. To add to these medals, she’s also a six-time European championship gold medallist.
Aged 26, like her compatriot Chochuwong, Busanan Ongbamtugphan has seen the majority of her success come in regional tournaments.
Ongbamtugphan has won four gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games: two in 2015, one in 2017 and one in 2019. She was also a bronze medallist at the 2018 Asian Games.
Hailing from China, 22-year-old Han Yue has started off her career quite strong, having already won a few important gold medals. Yue is ranked eleventh in the world at the moment.
She won the Uber Cup in 2020 while also winning the gold medal in the Asia Mixed Team Championship 2019. She also won a couple of junior-level gold medals in the Asia Junior Championships and the World Junior Championships.
Pornpawee Chochuwong sits twelfth in the world rankings. The 24-year-old has seen the majority of her success come in regional tournaments.
Chochuwong has won four gold medals at the South East Asian Games: in 2017, and 2019 and two in 2021. Apart from these, however, she is yet to announce herself as a real threat on the international stage.
The 27-year-old Japanese badminton player sits thirteenth in the world rankings. Okuhara is a bronze medal winner at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. She took gold in the 2017 World Championships. She also has an Uber Cup and an Asian Team Championships gold medal to add to her tally.
Michelle Li is an experienced campaigner. The Canadian badminton player is 31 now and is ranked fourteenth in the world, off a few places from her career-best of eight.
Li has won four gold medals at the Pan American Games and has won nine gold medals in the Pan American Championships. She also won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The Indonesia-based badminton player is only 23 years old and has a lot of time to establish her place amongst the best in the sport.
Tunjung won essential medals at a very young age. These include the Asian Team Championships gold in 2022 and an Asian games bronze medal in the 2018 women’s team event.
Kjærsfeldt has been in the badminton scene for a number of years but only recently broke into the top 20 and marked her career-best ranking of sixteenth.
The 28-year-old Dane has won several medals at the European level, including four golds at the European mixed team championships and four more at the European women’s team championships.
Kristy Gilmour is a player from Great Britain who has been around for quite some time now. She is placed seventeenth in the world at the moment. The Scottish badminton player has also represented England. Currently 29 years old, Gilmour has been on the fringe of winning international and regional tournaments.
Gilmour has two medals at the Commonwealth Games. She won silver in Glasgow in 2014 and followed it up with a bronze medal at Gold Coast in 2018. She also has three silver medals at the European Championships.
26-year-old Yiman does not have much to show in terms of medals and achievements in her senior career yet. Her most significant success probably came in the 2021 World Championships, when she won a bronze in women’s singles.
Wang comes from the USA and is placed nineteenth in the world right now. The 28-year-old has had most of her success in regional American tournaments.
However, even at the Pan American Games, the Pan American Championships, and the Pan American Mixed Team Championships, where she has won medals, the gold medal still eludes Wang.
Kim Ga-eun is one to watch for the future. The 24-year-old youngster from South Korea has already racked up quite a few medals at notable tournaments and is ranked twentieth in the world at the moment.
Most notably, Kim won gold at the Uber Cup in 2022. Apart from this, she also has a couple of silvers at the Asian regional tournaments and a few more that she won at junior level.
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