Turkiye Prevail in Humdinger

Two mixed doubles pairs who ply their wares on the fringes of the elite circuit produced the most intense match of the day at the BWF World Championships 2026.

World No.71 Emre Sonmez/Yasemen Bektas and India’s Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh (No.60), were locked in a 71-minute battle that see-sawed all the way before the Turkiye pair became the first from their country to make the second round. The Indians were in the reserves list and promoted to the main draw.

Sonmez and Bektas survived six match points in the second game to take it 30-29, and then saved two more in the third before converting their third opportunity: 16-21 30-29 24-22.

“It’s definitely crushing,” said Pramuthesh. “We missed it by an inch, we were so close. Obviously I’m happy that we got the opportunity to play here, because we were promoted two days back. Happy about the way we played but sad with the result.”

The Indians travel to tournaments as an independent pair. Having played the International Challenge and International Series with modest results, they began their foray into the HSBC BWF World Tour this year, but arrived at the World Championships after first round losses at six tournaments. That they had come within a point of adding significantly to their ranking points did sting.

“There’s a lot at stake,” said Surya. “We could have got a lot of ranking points winning this round. We had match points in two games, so losing from there…”

For the Turkiye pair, semifinalists at the Austrian Open (International Series), this was a great way to make their World Championships debut.

“This is our first World Championships, and we are really grateful for winning,” said Bektas. “We have been playing together as a pair for long, so we are used to pressure situations and we told ourselves we can do it.”