Wardani Eyes Top Tier 2026
Putri Kusuma Wardani closed out a breakthrough season in style with a win at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, beating Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki 21-17, 21-9 in her last group match. The result capped off a great year for…
· DIANNE PIERRE
Putri Kusuma Wardani closed out a breakthrough season in style with a win at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, beating Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki 21-17, 21-9 in her last group match. The result capped off a great year for Wardani, becoming Indonesia’s leading women’s singles player and climbed to a career-high world ranking of No.6. The 23-year-old made history as the first Indonesian to win a women’s singles medal at a BWF World Championships in a decade.
Drawn in Group A in Hangzhou, Wardani had World No.1 An Se Young, world champion Akane Yamguchi and Tomoka Miyazaki for company at her maiden World Tour Finals.
“I’m satisfied. It's not an easy feat to stretch Se Young and Akane to three games. It's a valuable experience for me,” she told BWF in Hangzhou. “I feel glad and grateful to be able to compete in this BWF World Tour Finals. I gained a lot of experience from the group stage matches, like my matches against An and Yamaguchi. I learnt a lot from them.”