Christo Popov
- Ranking
- No. 1
- Nation
- FRA
- Born
- 8 Mar 2002
- Titles listed
- 8
Christo Popov became men’s singles world No. 1 on 27 October 2026, two days after winning the French Open in front of a home crowd at Arena Grand Paris. He is the first Frenchman to hold the top ranking, and the first Frenchman to win the men’s singles there since Henri Pellizza in 1946. His margin over Kunlavut Vitidsarn is 467 points: 89,932 to 89,465.
Who he is
Popov was born on 8 March 2002 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and plays for France. His father Thomas played and coached for the Bulgarian national team before the family moved; his older brother Toma Junior Popov is also on the tour, and the two have won a European men’s doubles title together (Horsens, 2025) alongside their singles careers. Christo is left-handed, which matters more than it sounds: most of his opponents spend most of their training week playing right-handers, so the angles he produces get less practice.
He arrived as a junior with a World Junior Championships silver in boys’ singles (2019). The senior breakthrough was slower than the junior results suggested. He won two Super 300s in 2024 (German Open and Hylo Open), reached the French Open final in 2025 and lost it to Anders Antonsen, then won the BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou in December 2025 as the first Frenchman to do so. That title is the base of the points total that carried him to No. 1 this autumn.
How he plays
Popov is a left-handed attacker who plays at a high tempo and likes to decide rallies rather than wait for errors. Two things stand out to a club player watching him.
First, the cross-court angles. A left-hander’s forehand smash and forehand drop travel on the opposite diagonal from what most opponents are used to, so the straight-looking preparation produces a shuttle that arrives a metre wider than expected. Watch how often his round-the-head shot from the backhand corner goes steep and cross, not straight.
Second, the temperament in close finishes. The 2026 record is good evidence: he closed out the Japan Open quarter-final against the then world No. 1 Shi Yuqi after losing the first game, and he closed out the French Open final in a third game after letting the second slip.
2026 so far
- German Open, Mülheim, 24 February to 1 March (Super 300): champion, beating his brother Toma in the final.
- European Men’s Team Championships, Istanbul (February): gold with France.
- European Championships, Huelva: men’s singles gold, beating Anders Antonsen 21-12, 21-19 in the final; men’s doubles silver with Toma.
- Thomas Cup, Horsens: silver with France, beaten by China in the final.
- Japan Open, Tokyo, 14 to 19 July (Super 750): champion. Beat Shi Yuqi 14-21, 21-10, 21-11 in the quarter-final, Kodai Naraoka 21-14, 21-11 in the semi-final and Koki Watanabe 21-11, 21-19 in the final. His first Super 750 title.
- French Open, Paris, 20 to 25 October (Super 750): champion, beating Zaki Ubaidillah of Indonesia 21-11, 14-21, 21-13 in the final on 25 October.
The World Championships title in New Delhi in August went to his compatriot Alex Lanier, who is now world No. 4; France has the world champion and the world No. 1 in the same discipline for the first time.
Titles
| Title | Level | Year |
|---|---|---|
| French Open | Super 750 | 2026 |
| Japan Open | Super 750 | 2026 |
| European Championships, men’s singles | Continental | 2026 |
| German Open | Super 300 | 2026 |
| BWF World Tour Finals | Finals | 2025 |
| European Championships, men’s doubles (with Toma Junior Popov) | Continental | 2025 |
| German Open | Super 300 | 2024 |
| Hylo Open | Super 300 | 2024 |
He has not yet won a Super 1000, a World Championships medal or an Olympic medal. He played men’s doubles with his brother at Paris 2024.
What to watch for
The ranking is close enough at the top that one bad week changes it. Vitidsarn sits 467 points behind, Antonsen is third on 85,155 and Lanier fourth on 83,665. The remaining Super 500s in Korea, Japan and Hong Kong offer modest points; the BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou (9 to 13 December), where Popov is the defending champion, is where the year-end No. 1 will probably be settled.
Left-handers, this one is for you: build your attack around the cross-court forehand from the rear court, because most of your opponents have barely practised returning it.