Kuala Lumpur: The World No. 1 men’s singles player – Kento Momota, who missed the 2016 Rio Olympics after received suspension from the Nippon Badminton Association for gambling at illegal casinos in Japan, earned a chance to redeem himself in Tokyo as he was seeded top in the Olympic Games and has been drawn into Group A of the Tokyo 2020 draw, together with Timothy Lam of USA and Heo Kwanghee of Korea.
If Momota as well as men’s singles second seed Chou Tien Chen (Group P) from Taiwan could top their respective groups, they would receive a bye in the round of 16. Momota could face Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong or Sai Praneeth of India in the quarter-finals, while Chou could face Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the last eight.
Lee Zii Jia was selected into Group M together with Brice Leverdez of France and Artem Pochtarov of Ukraine. Lee would need to see off reigning Olympic champion – Chen Long of China in the last 16 before reaching the quarter-finals.
In women’s singles, the No. 1 seed Chen Yu Fei of China was grouped with Egypt’s Doha Hany and Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit in Group A and will also enjoy a bye to advance directly to the quarter-finals.
The World No. 1 women’s singles player the No. 2 seed in the Olympics, Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan will also have a bye in the last 16. However, since her group (Group P) is the only group with a total of four players, Tai would need to play three matches before reaching the last 8.
Tai could potentially face Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the last 8.
Women’s singles No. 5 seed, Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand will play Soniia Cheah of Malaysia, Laura Sarosi of Hungary in Group N.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic draw brought Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia into the group of death (Group A) alongside World No. 3 Lee Yang, Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan, World No. 10 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India, and World No. 18 Ben Lane/Sean Vendy of England.
Malaysia’s World No. 9 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik were drawn into Group D together with World No. 2 Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan, World No. 8 Choi Solgyu/Seo Seungjae of Korea, and World No. 32 Jason Anthony Ho-shue/Nyl Yakura of Canada.
Japan’s women’s doubles No. 1 seed Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota will take on World No. 6 Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia, World No. 11 Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean of Malaysia, and World No. 14 Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith of England in Group A before advancing to the knockout stage.
The Rio Olympic mixed doubles silver medalists – Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying will face a stiff challenge in the group stage (Group D), as they were drawn with No. 2 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping of China, Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong and Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich of Germany.
Chan/Goh had a 2-7 career meeting record against World No. 3 Wang/Huang, while they also had a 1-4 head-to-head record against the World No. 13 Tang/Tse. Chan/Goh would need to win at least two matches in Group D to advance to the next round.
