Indonesia Masters 2025 Women’s Singles Preview and Predictions

The action continues this week on the BWF world tour as Jakarta hosts the Indonesia Masters, the first 500 event of the season. So far An Se Young has dominated with 2 titles from two competitions. Luckily for her competition she won’t be attending the Indonesia Masters this year. So who will take this opportunity to add a title to their cabinet?

The first qualification opportuntiy of the year!

Some might say they don’t like qualifications in tournaments. It’s lower ranked lesser-known players. At badminton Speak we disagree. We love to see the younger players coming through. It’s an opportunity for an upset and gives hope to lower ranked players to gain ranking points. It means more stories and unique players to invest our attention into.

The Indonesia Masters is the first 500 event of the season so the first chance for those lower-ranked players to qualify. These matches all took place on the Tuesday with the main draw commencing Wednesday.

How do the qualifiers measure up?

It is good to see a young local player getting through qualification. Indonesian, Chiara Marvella Handoyo, is only 19 years old ranked at 83. The 2023 BWF Jr World champion runner-up competed well last season at lower-level competitions. The most significant of these was probably her runner-up finish at the Indonesia International Challenge last August, she fought through five 3-set matches to claim a medal in Indonesia. She is in our list of players to watch out for in 2025!

Malaysian, Karupathevan Letshanaa, is 21 and ranked at 59. She had a strong year in 2024 picking up a second and third place finish at the 100 and Challenge level. Tanya Hemanth of India is the world number 58 at 21 years old. In a tough 2024 where she largely lost in the R32 she did have two highlights picking up a runner-up finish at the Polish Open and Azerbaijan International. She lost out to compatriots both times in the final, we are sure she feels she has a lot to prove against her national rivals.

Keisha Fatimah Azzahra is somewhat underrated currently. The Young Olympian from Azerbaijan had a number of good results in 2024 reaching 3 finals at pre tour level. She stuggled much more at tour level taking losses in R32 on most occassions.

The Main draw

With so many of the Women’s singles players retiring or out injured the Indonesia Masters 2025 draw feels quite weak. The top two ranked players in the competition are Gregoria Tunjung of Indonesia – WR 5 and Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan – WR 7. This will mean the competition is more about finding the players who can take advantage of the opportunity, who is ruthless enough to take those higher-ranking positions.

The outlook for the top seeds?

Gregoria Tunjung is the top seed in Jakarta. So far this season she has a semifinal finish losing out to An Se Young and a R32 finish in Malaysia, losing out to compatriot Putri Wardani. Her last two tournaments in Indonesia ended in the Quarter-final, this could indicate that she is uncomfortable with the rising expectations in the later round of competition in front of her home fans. We expect she will make the semi-final where it is likely she will meet compatriot Putri Wardani. That would be a 50/50 matchup to get to the final, a great match for the local fans.

Tomoka Miyakazi is the second seed in Indonesia. She has also had a rather split start to the season. The 18 year old Japanese prodigy, like Tunjung, has a semifinal and R32 finish so far. She lost out to Blichfeldt and Chochuwong. In her last 8 tournaments of 2024 she earned 6 podium finishes! Miyazaki faces Indian youngster Santhosh Ramraj in R32, a simple match for her. Her route to the final should be assured as she hold wins over all the competitors she will face such as Intanon and PV Sindhu. The only trouble could come in the form of Fang Jie Gao.

Could the third or fourth seed challenge them?

Yeo Jia Min joins her rivals as the third seed in Jakarta. The Singaporean has been much more consistent with two QF finishes only losing to the top two ranked players. Both of those players are not playing in Jakarta this week, so perhaps she will progress further. She hasn’t been able to progress past the QF of tour events for about a year. We think her tournament will come to an end in the QF in Jakarta against Gregoria Tunjung.

The fourth seed in Jakarta is Pornpawee Chochuwong, the Thai world number 8. She is coming off the back of a great performance in India where she lost the final to An Se Young. Chochuwong could be one of those benficieries of the top ranked women not competing. She had good results in 2024, a variety of finishes with finals, semi-final and quarter-final finishes. She will want to upgrade her almost victories in Jakarta to stand atop the podium. Chochuwang is part of the tougher side of the draw. Azzahra in the first round could be tricky but Chochuwong should have enough. She will face Wardani in the QF, but with a 7-0 H2H Chochuwong should progress. We can see her doing well here. The only problem could be fatigue.

Unseeded challengers at Indonesia Masters 2025!

At Badminton Speak we really appreciate a good dark horse. An unexpected run from an outsider that shake up the existing order. How likely are we to get that in Indonesia?

Ratchanok Intanon, the former top ranked Thai player is now only the 4th best Thai player and outside the top 10. She has been competing well with only An Se Young stopping her so far this season. Intanon wont be afraid of any player in Jakarta thoguh Nidaira would be tricky in the R16. Gao would give her problems in the QF but it is an even match up and Tunjung in a possible final would be very difficult for Intanon.

Gao Fang Jie has a good opportunity in Indonesia to find her form again. She ended 2024 strong with a first and second place finish. Gao will now be wondering if that was just good form or whether she can actually play at that level more regularly. She has a more favourable side of the draw that gives her a great opportunity to progress. A semifinal between Gao and Miyazaki would be great to see.

Could an indonesian player take the Indonesia Masters crown?

We have already covered Tunjung as the top seed in Jakarta. However, her compatriot Putri Wardani has already beaten her once this season in the R32 in Malaysia. She could pose a real threat to Tunjung in the semifinal. That would ensure an Indonesian in the final!

This is a realistic outcome as Wardani has a good run to the QF. Yu Po Pai followed by Sugiyama then she would meet Chochuwong in the QF. The Thai shuttler has a 7-0 H2H over Wardani, the only thing that could save her is fatigue for Chochuwong or the support of the crowd pushing her on.

We also see Dewi take to the court in the first round against Sugiyama of Japan. This the first meeting of the pair who have similar results over the last year. A close match but Sugiyama will take this one sending Dewi out in the R32. In addition to Dewi, nineteen year old Handoyo will compete against Taipei’s Pin-Chian Chiu. It is tough to guage Handoyo’s current level as she transitions to senior level competition. The crowd should help her in Jakarta and get a first round win. Unfortuantely after this she will almost certainly be knocked out by Tomoka Miyazaki in the R16.

Our dark horse for the Indonesia masters.

This is a tough section for the Indonesia Masters 2025. There are no candidates that stand out as over looked or outsiders that could cause some upsets. Line Christophersen for example would be a candidate but we just don’t feel she has shown any signs that she can over come the higher level opponents. Thuy Linh Nguyen could be another option but again she has not shown the ability to cause upsets. She has generally had R32 exits in tour events and beaten by promising younger players. Lauren Lam is another name you could mention for this prediction. Again she has not shown any signs of moving up or odd wins against higher-ranked opponents. It is very unlikely that she will cause any upsets.

The two best shots for a Dark Horse in Jakarta is going to be Sim Yu Jin of Korea. This is her first tournament of the year, she beat Yeo Jia Min in their last match and the Korean also had a few great results towards the end of 2024 with semifinal finishes at the 500 level. She is ranked 26th so not a total outside chance, she has started to prove her level already.

On the other hand Azzahra of Azerbaijan, who came through qualifying, could be a total outside chance. Young with a couple of positive signs last season without breaking through. This could be her breakout year. She has a very tough first round match with Chochuwong. Normally this would be no question but the Thai player was in the final of the India Open 2 days before this match. If Chochuwong can’t deal with the travel and fatigue I think Azzahra could sneak a victory and even win her R16 match whihc would be easier than Chochuwong.

Final predictions!

Winner of the Womens singles: Tomoka Miyakazi!

Dark horse of the Indonesia Masters: Sim Yu Jin!