Ashmita Chaliha wins Korea Masters 2026 women’s singles, Korea; first Indian to win Korea Masters.
Korea Masters 2026 badminton: Ashmita Chaliha rallies to win maiden BWF World Tour title
Korea Masters 2026 badminton: Ashmita Chaliha rallies to win maiden BWF World Tour title
India have now won back-to-back women’s singles titles on the BWF World Tour after Tanvi Sharma’s Taipei Open triumph last week.
India’s Ashmita Chaliha rallied from a game down to beat the People’s Republic of China’s Han Qianxi in the women’s singles final of the Korea Masters 2026 badminton tournament on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Ashmita won 14-21, 21-14, 21-14 against the fourth-seeded Chinese shuttler to become the first Indian to win the Korea Masters - a BWF Super 300 tournament.
The victory also marked Ashmita Chaliha’s maiden BWF World Tour title and came on her first appearance in a final. The Indian badminton player had also reached the semi-finals of the Macau Open in June.
She joins an elite group of Indian women’s singles players to have won BWF Super 300 or higher-level badminton titles, alongside Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu , as well as Devika Sihag and Tanvi Sharma.
“I feel really great and unbelievable. But then I am trying to digest it. Now, I am hungry for more,” Chaliha said after winning the title.
Ashmita Chaliha had already produced a major upset in the Korea Masters quarter-finals, knocking out top seed Hina Akechi of Japan.
She started the final strongly, opening up a 9-5 lead against Han Qianxi. However, a run of five consecutive points from the Chinese shuttler turned the game around as Ashmita Chaliha eventually dropped the opener.
Ashmita Chaliha then made amends in the next two games by capitalising on her leads at the intervals to wrap up the final in 53 minutes.
Earlier, she had also defeated compatriot Rakshitha Ramraj in an all-Indian semi-final.
Ashmita Chaliha is now the fourth Indian woman to win a singles BWF World Tour title this year, following PV Sindhu at the Japan Open, Devika Sihag at the Thailand Masters and Tanvi Sharma at the Taipei Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are the other Indian winners on the BWF World Tour this year, having claimed the men’s doubles title at the Singapore Badminton Open in May.
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