The reigning SEA Games 33 badminton champion lost in the opening match of the BWF World Tour Finals

The eight-player BWF World Tour Finals 2025 badminton tournament commenced today, December 17, in Hangzhou, China.

The current gold medalist in the women’s team and singles events at SEA Games 33 - Ratchanok Intanon was defeated in her opening match of Group B at the BWF World Tour Finals 2025 this afternoon, December 17, Vietnam time.

Ratchanok’s opponent was her compatriot Pornpawee Chochuwong, who is ranked two places higher than her in the BWF world badminton rankings. Both players know each other very well, making their match highly exciting.

Pornpawee Chochuwong started game 1 very strongly, quickly taking a 6-1 lead, but Ratchanok Intanon showed great resilience to narrow the gap to just one point. However, Pornpawee remained composed and handled the pressure confidently, maintaining her advantage until the final points and winning the first game 21-18.

The second game belonged entirely to Ratchanok Intanon. "May" dominated, scoring a streak of 6 consecutive points to build a significant lead before the mid-game timeout, then consistently kept a 6-7 point margin to win 21-14, leveling the match at 1-1.

However, the reigning SEA Games champion couldn’t sustain the necessary pace in the decisive third game and was overwhelmed by Pornpawee’s pressure. "Close friend" Nguyễn Thùy Linh created a large gap and sealed the final victory 2-1 (21-18; 14-21; 21-10) with a run of 5 consecutive points.

In the next Group B women’s singles matches at the BWF World Tour Finals 2025, Ratchanok Intanon will face Wang Zhiyi, while Pornpawee Chochuwong will compete against another Chinese player, Han Yue.

The biggest surprise on the opening day of this year’s eight-player badminton tournament was the defeat of world number 2 Anders Antonsen by Christo Popov. The top Thai mixed doubles pair "Bass-Fame": Deechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran also lost to Hiroki Midorikawa/Natsu Saito in just 2 games, while the current world number 1 in women’s singles, An Se-young, needed 3 sets to overcome Putri Kusuma Wardani.

Meanwhile, several notable players such as Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Akane Yamaguchi, Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning, Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, and Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei all achieved their expected results.