As badminton’s biggest jamboree returns to India after 17 years, with the hosts anxious about pulling off a global event seamlessly, the top-tier athletes are offering their approval to an “improved arena,” resembling humble invitees at the mercy of hosts.

They know about the monkeys and pigeons, but laud the efforts undertaken to negate all that went wrong in January. Perhaps, the venue mirrors their own tentative mindset in an injury-ravaged season with several top names neither completely fit, nor completely confident. Badminton, indeed, revels in its reserve.

At its grandest stage, it falls back on the opposite of boxing’s trash-talk. It politely reveals wounds and weaknesses, lulling opponents. A day before the World Badminton Championship, World No 1 An Se-young had ice bags strapped to her left knee when she came to speak to the press. She insisted the lead-up has been solely about injury recovery and rediscovering rhythm. Her opponent Chen Yufei concedes compatriot Wang Zhi Yi is better prepared than her, and she’s only just finding her way back into battle-mode. Zhi Yi, a potential PV Sindhu roadblock, stresses on how tough it is to play the Indian.

Neither Chinese will reveal their level of preparation in the bid to reclaim a title China has not won since 2011, because the murmurs over the elusive World title have turned into a clamour. Yufei claims her strategies have nothing to do with who the opponent is. Yet, at the mere mention of defending champion Akane Yamaguchi, her facial expression freezes in time. Clipped clichés about focusing on self, follow.

Men’s singles No 2 and former champion, Kunlavut Vitidsarn almost concedes he is in a testing phase after an injury lull, and says the Delhi Worlds are not much more than a training pad for next month’s Asian Games — a title he hasn’t won. He acknowledges the new generation has increasingly made his life difficult, with the likes of Alex Lanier, Lin Chun Yi and Ayush Shetty snapping at his heels. Kunlavut is from Lakshya Sen’s batch and ought to have seen Viktor Axelsen’s exit as an opportunity, but there’s no dearth of Christo Popovs and Alwi Farhans waiting to dislodge him, already a seasoned senior. He is 25, and sport is seldom kind.

In men’s doubles, there is hardly anything to separate the top 10. Former champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik are reuniting in Delhi, having spent the last few months playing with different partners. “We are playing together for years, so tuning won’t be a problem,” Chia insists. Seo Seung-jae, arguably the most versatile player in Delhi and the only contemporary two-gold winner at mixed and doubles, has his left shoulder in an iced plastic sling, and refuses to think beyond the Round of 32. He and Kim Won Ho lost next to nothing till April of 2026, but have tapered off at the last four tournaments. Even the boisterous Chinese, Liang Weikeng remains subdued, lacking clarity on expectations. These are serial medallists at the Olympics and Worlds, but it is not in badminton’s DNA to talk up their own chances. They’d rather keep expectations low. In this sport, they hide the Jekyll.

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The sweetest silence belongs to men’s singles World No 1 Shi Yuqi, who has been handed the tall Ayush Shetty challenge in Round 1. The Chinese declined to speak to the media, even risking a hefty fine. In a rapid-fire, Ayush was asked who might win. “Ayush Shetty,” he said with a straight face. He will need to walk and talk, because Yuqi won’t. “I try to feel relaxed, and enjoy as much as possible,” Ayush says of his pre-match mindspace ahead of a World’s debut.

The other Shetty, the older one with two Worlds medals already, is less emphatic. The Sat-Chi pair does think and analyse, but does not overthink and over-analyse. What do they, then, talk about before the opener? “If there are jitters, it’s natural. It’s better to voice it out,” he says. Lakshya Sen guards against complacency. “We don’t want to take it easy in the first round, so we are more alert,” he says of avoiding nasty surprises. Sen tends to get better as tournaments progress. “Everybody has a chance, but I believe in myself.”

PV Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara are legends of World Championships folklore. “2017 was obviously my favourite because I was champion. But I have happy memories of 2019 (reaching the final) too,” Okuhara says. Sindhu might have won at Basel, but as she chases her sixth medal, she is dialled into the 2017 loss. “I was hard on myself after that loss. But it made me stronger,” she recalls.

In badminton, regardless of the stature of the shuttler, one is likely to have a penchant for the lull. Delhi, hence, can only await the storm that follows. It almost always does.