Ashmita Chaliha wins Korea Masters two years after leaving the country on crutches
The 26-year-old from Guwahati came from a game down to beat China’s Han Qian Xi for her first BWF World Tour title — in the same country that tore her knee in 2024.
Saina Nehwal lunges at the shuttle during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Chaliha’s first Tour title is the kind of Super 300 win Saina and P. V. Sindhu used to collect on the way up.
Photo: Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India) / GODL-India
Ashmita Chaliha won the Korea Masters on Sunday from a game down. The 26-year-old from Guwahati beat China’s Han Qian Xi 14–21, 21–14, 21–14 in 53 minutes at Yi Sun-sin Gymnasium in Asan. It is her first BWF World Tour title, and the first time an Indian has won this event.
She had already taken the week. Ranked No. 50, she beat Japan’s top seed Hina Akechi in three games in the quarterfinals, then beat fellow Indian Rakshitha Ramraj in the semifinal. The final started on the wrong end of the hall. Chaliha said afterward the drift made the first game hard to control. After they changed ends she found the smash and the patience.
Han, the fourth seed and world No. 35, led 11–9 in the decider. Chaliha won seven of the next points and closed it.
Two years ago, Korea sent her home on crutches. She tore the meniscus in her right knee at the Korea Open in August 2024, had surgery in Mumbai, and spent eight months off the tour. Her ranking fell outside the top 200. Sponsors left. Her mother, Geetali, has talked about meeting her at Bangalore airport and crying as Ashmita came down the escalator.
This time she flew out with a trophy. The rebuild happened at home, under Park Tae-Sang at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati. Park is the Korean coach who once took P. V. Sindhu to Olympic bronze. Last Sunday his 17-year-old, Tanvi Sharma, won the Taipei Open. Seven days later Chaliha won in Asan. Both were Super 300s, the mid-tier World Tour events where most players get their first title.
“All the credit goes to coach Park,” Chaliha said, “because without him I wasn’t this energetic earlier.” His note before the final was simpler: cut the easy errors, use the smash. She did.
Indian women’s singles has had a busy summer. Sindhu won the Japan Open in July. Tanvi and Chaliha just won in consecutive weeks. Park has already said the next job is the bigger events, and the Los Angeles 2028 qualifying race that opens next May.
Chaliha will not play the World Championships in New Delhi next week. Sindhu and Unnati Hooda have those two singles spots. She just needed a week that looked like her again, and she got it in the country that sent her home on crutches.