Bangkok: Lin Dan, Chen Long, Shi Yuqi and Li Xuerui have arrived in Bangkok to participate in this year’s Thomas and Uber Cups finals.
After tumbling out to Korea 1-3 in the Thomas Cup quarter-finals two years ago in Kunshan, China, the Chinese team came to Bangkok with a mission to take back the prestigious men’s team trophy. With the all-star lineup including Rio Olympic Chen Long, the reigning All England Champion Shi Yuqi, and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, they should have no trouble beating France, Australia and an under-strength India, who have played without Kidambi Srikanth just to keep him fresh for the Asian Games and the World Championships.
Meanwhile, China’s bid to win their fourth consecutive Uber cup has been boosted by the return of Li Xuerui who won the 2012 London Olympic.
However, the Uber Cup defending champions are likely to face stiff challenge from Japan, where they have top players in the singles such as World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi, No. 9 Nozomi Okuhara, and World No. 13 Sayaka Sato. Japan has three World’s top 5 women’s doubles pair including World No. 2 Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota, World No. 4 Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi and World No. 5 Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto, they are the deadliest women’s doubles combinations in the tournament.
In addition to the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, Badminton World Federation (BWF) will also hold its annual general meeting where they will discuss proposals of changing the scoring system to 11 x 5 format and issues related to the 1.15 meters fixed height service rule implemented earlier this year.
