Seventy-four pairs entered the women's individual division at Parc du Tremblay. Four are left. By Friday evening one of them is world champion and the other three are finished.
The round that built the bracket was the Golds group phase, and all four survivors won their group 5-0. All four also won their first group without losing, which is where the one asymmetry in their records comes from: the first stage ran thirteen groups of unequal size, so Kadlec and Leybourne, Pernigo and Zanella and Amsler and Kunzelmann each played four matches there and Hui and Lowe played five. Nothing has gone wrong for any of them since. As the division's results page stood at 22:10 CEST on Thursday, the four carried forty-one wins and no defeat between them. What happened around them, three German pairs going out in one afternoon and a quarter-final ending 25-24, is in the day one recap.
Thirteen World Championship medals are left in this draw. Three pairs hold all of them, and the pair with none of them has not lost a match.
The question Friday answers is not form. All four have it. It is whether thirteen World Championship medals count for anything against the one pair that holds none, from a country that held none of any colour until Thursday evening.
The last four
| Seed | Pair | Golds group | Diff | Worlds medals in the pair |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇦🇹 Daniela Kadlec & Megan Leybourne | 5-0 | +54 | 6 |
| 2 | 🇮🇹 Chiara Pernigo & Silvia Zanella | 5-0 | +50 | 0 |
| 3 | 🇨🇭 Selina Amsler & Laura Kunzelmann | 5-0 | +47 | 3 |
| 5 | 🇺🇸 Karah Hui & Elle Lowe | 5-0 | +41 | 4 |
Seeds are read off the published bracket, not derived from the group tables.
#1 🇦🇹 Kadlec & Leybourne
Seed 1 · Golds group 5-0, +54 · Record here 10-0 · World Championship medals in the pair: 6 Worlds record: defending champions, women's gold at Guildford 2024. Megan Leybourne also holds mixed bronze from 2022 and squad bronze from both editions. Daniela Kadlec holds squad bronze from 2024 and nothing from 2022, because she was not at that championship: she was at her best friend's wedding.
Their +54 is the best differential of the eight pairs that reached the bracket, four clear of the next. Then the draw handed them the pair they beat in the 2024 final, and they won again, 21-18 and 21-11.
For them: Austria has won four World Championship medals in its entire history and Leybourne is on all four of them. Nobody left in this draw holds more, and only Hui matches her. They have not lost a game all week, in a division where group matches are single games and only the bracket is best of three.
Against them: they lost this year's ETS Championship final to Pernigo and Zanella, who sit in the other half. Their semi-final is against the only pair in the last four that has already beaten a higher seed here.
What to watch: the second game. 21-11 against the 2024 silver medallists is not a normal margin at this level.
Next: semi-final against Hui and Lowe, 14:00.
#2 🇮🇹 Pernigo & Zanella
Seed 2 · Golds group 5-0, +50 · Record here 10-0 · World Championship medals in the pair: 0 Worlds record: none. Italy had never won a medal at a World Championship in any division until Thursday, when Dudine and Rossetto took the mixed title.
They are the reigning two-time European champions, they beat Kadlec and Leybourne in this year's ETS Championship final, and they are the only pair left that has been taken to three games here.
For them: +50 is the second-best differential of the eight qualifiers, and they hold the most recent result against the top seeds, in the biggest European final of the year. A medal on Friday would be Italy's second of this championship.
Against them: they are the only semi-finalist with no World Championship medal of any kind, and the only one to drop a game. Bauer and Walter, seeded seventh, took the first 21-14 before Italy answered 21-19 and 21-6.
What to watch: the start. They have been behind once in this bracket and the reply was a 21-6 third game.
Next: semi-final against Amsler and Kunzelmann, 14:00.
#3 🇨🇭 Amsler & Kunzelmann
Seed 3 · Golds group 5-0, +47 · Record here 10-0 · World Championship medals in the pair: 3 Worlds record: Laura Kunzelmann won the mixed title at Guildford 2024 and took women's bronze and mixed silver in 2022. Selina Amsler has no World Championship medal.
Kunzelmann is considered by many the greatest women's player the sport has produced, and the part of that a record can carry is this: Switzerland has won three World Championship medals in its history, Kunzelmann is on all three, and they come from two different divisions. She has stood on an individual podium at both previous championships, which nobody else left in this draw has done. The rest of the case, the titles outside the World Championship and the number of tournaments she has won, needs its own piece and is getting one.
There is one meeting with the other half of this draw that the World Championship record does not show. At the ETS finals in Basel this year, Leybourne and Dziruni beat Kunzelmann in the mixed final, ending a run of consecutive European mixed titles she had been putting together. Leybourne has already taken a title off her once in 2026.
For them: every pair that won a Golds group finished on exactly 85 points, because five games with a hard cap at 17 cannot produce anything else, so the whole separation is in what they conceded. Switzerland conceded 38, third of the six behind Austria on 31 and Italy on 35. Then they beat another 5-0 group winner in the quarter-final, 21-18 and 21-12.
Against them: Kunzelmann finished only fifth at this year's ETS Championship, at the same event where Leybourne beat her in the mixed final. And Leybourne has four World Championship medals to her three.
What to watch: Amsler. She is the one player in this half with no championship record behind her, and Friday's ceiling is her level, not her partner's.
Next: semi-final against Pernigo and Zanella, 14:00.
#5 🇺🇸 Hui & Lowe
Seed 5 · Golds group 5-0, +41 · Record here 11-0 · World Championship medals in the pair: 4 Worlds record: Karah Hui took women's silver and mixed gold in 2022 and squad gold at both editions. Elle Lowe has no World Championship medal.
The lowest seed left, and the only one of the four that has had to beat a higher one, 21-18 and 25-24 on the last point the format allows.
For them: eleven matches, eleven wins, the longest unbeaten run in the division. Hui holds three World Championship golds, where Kadlec, Leybourne and Kunzelmann have one each.
Against them: the United States has not won a women's individual medal since 2022, when it took gold and silver in an all-American final. Hui was in that final, on the losing side. Their +41 is the lowest differential of the four.
What to watch: whether they can close a game without the cap. Friday's opponent has not conceded one all week.
Next: semi-final against Kadlec and Leybourne, 14:00.
Women's final at 18:00. Live brackets and every group table: Women's individual on fwango.
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Quick guide: the world championship in brief
No. Across the first two World Championships, in 2022 and 2024, no player won two individual gold medals in any division. The women's title went to Graham and Rogers of the United States in 2022 and to Leybourne and Kadlec of Austria in 2024. If Kadlec and Leybourne win in Paris they become the first pair to defend a roundnet world title.
Megan Leybourne and Daniela Kadlec are the reigning women's world champions, having won the 2024 title in Guildford by beating Stadler and Stadler of Germany 21-19, 21-15. Austria has won four World Championship medals in its history and Leybourne is on all four of them: the 2024 women's gold, mixed bronze in 2022, and squad bronze at both editions. Kadlec was not at the 2022 championship. In the 2026 Golds group phase the pair went 5-0 with a differential of plus 54, the best in the field.
Laura Kunzelmann of Switzerland is considered by many the greatest women's player the sport has produced. Switzerland has won three World Championship medals and she is on all three: the mixed title in 2024, and women's bronze and mixed silver in 2022. She is the only player left in the 2026 women's draw to have stood on an individual World Championship podium at both previous editions. She plays the 2026 championship with Selina Amsler.
The women's individual semi-finals start at 14:00 on Friday 4 September and the final is at 18:00. Kadlec and Leybourne play Hui and Lowe of the United States, and Pernigo and Zanella of Italy play Amsler and Kunzelmann of Switzerland. Seventy-four pairs entered the division.
Not until 2026. Italy took no podium place in either the 2022 or the 2024 championship, in any division. That changed on Thursday 3 September, when Dudine and Rossetto won the mixed title in Paris, the country's first World Championship medal of any colour. Pernigo and Zanella can add a second in the women's individual division on Friday.
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