Dubai: Only the top eight in the world in the five disciplines of badminton are eligible to take part in the BWF World Superseries Finals to be held in Dubai from Dec 13th to Dec 17th.
Lee Chong Wei, a four-time winner of the tournament, has been drawn into the men’s singles Group A together with Son Wan Ho, Angus Ng Ka Long, and Chen Long.
In a tournament like this, there’s really never an easy passage as all eight players are the top shuttlers in the world. Lee will kick off his opener against Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong on Wednesday, then will meet Chen Long on Thursday, and lastly Son Wan-Ho on Friday.
The other men’s singles group is quite nicely balanced, though: Viktor Axelsen will expect to make the semi-finals, but Shi Yuqi, Kidambi Srikanth or even Shi Yuqi will have hopes of joining him in the last four.
In the women’s competition, World No. 1 women’s singles shuttler Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan was handed a relatively easy draw as she was grouped together with World No. 6 Ratchanok Intanon, World No. 5 Sung Ji-hyun and World No. 8 Chen Yufei in Group B.
On the other hand, the Rio Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu of India faces a tough draw with World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi, World No. 9 He Bingjiao and World No. 15 Sayaka Sato of Japan.
Below is the official draw of the 2017 BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals:
Men’s Singles:
Group A:
Son Wan-ho (Korea)
Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)
Angus Ng Ka Long (Hong Kong)
Chen Long (China)
Group B:
Kidambi Srikanth (India)
Shi Yuqi (China)
Chou Tien-chen (Chinese Taipei)
Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)
Women’s Singles:
Group A:
Akane Yamaguchi (Japan)
P. V. Sindhu (India)
Sayaka Sato (Japan)
He Bingjiao (China)
Group B:
Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei)
Sung Ji-hyun (Korea)
Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand)
Chen Yufei (China)
Men’s Doubles:
Group A:
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)
Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen (China)
Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding (Denmark)
Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda (Japan)
Group B:
Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Denmark)
Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan (China)
Lee Jhe-huei/Lee Yang (Chinese Taipei)
Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi (Japan)
Women’s Doubles:
Group A:
Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto (Japan)
Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (China)
Huang Yaqiong/Yu Xiaohan (China)
Chang Ye-na/Lee So-hee (Korea)
Group B:
Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (Japan)
Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen (Denmark)
Jung Kyung-eun/Shin Seung-chan (Korea)
Hsu Ya-ching/Wu Ti-jung (Chinese Taipei)
Mixed Doubles:
Group A:
Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen (China)
Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet (Hong Kong)
Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto (Indonesia)
Kenta Kazuno/Ayane Kurihara (Japan)
Group B:
Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping (China)
Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (Indonesia)
Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing (Malaysia)
Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (England)
