YONEX ALL ENGLAND OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE BEST ARE BACK
Tai Tzu Ying
Tai Tzu Ying can
be relied upon to mount a tough-minded challenge to become Chinese Taipei’s first ever winner
Carolina Marin
In the Men’s Doubles, the home crowd will have its first opportunity to celebrate the Olympic success of Chris Langdrige and Marcus Ellis, the surprise winners of the Bronze medal in Rio who are ranked just outside the world’s top 10.
Japan’s Kamura and Sonoda played some fantastic badminton to win the Superseries Finals in December and are the second seeds, just behind Malaysia’s Tan and Goh. The latter will dream of avenging their Olympic nightmare – they spoiled two Gold medal match points on their serve - by scooping this mythical All England title.
Amongst their other dangerous rivals are three pairs from Denmark led by Boe and Mogensen, while the Indonesians and Chinese will be on the watch for any drop in form.
Spaniard and all of her fighting spirit will be needed against a handful of players who are capable of beating her. India’s Saina Newhal and PV Sindhu, who have put badminton under the spotlight at home, as well as Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun will be dangerous opponents, along with Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon.
Question marks remain over the form of reigning champion Nozomi Okuhara from Japan who has not played for almost six months through injury and in the absence of Li Xuerui, still injured, China will be reliant on its two new rising stars He Bingjiao and Sun Yu.
Chen Qingchen will be eyeing a “double’s double” in the Women’s and Mixed Doubles. The 19-year-old Chinese is just astonishing, both with her Women’s partner and Jia Yifan who she will team-up with in the Mixed. She is, however, only seeded 5th with the former, with some great pairs to beat, including Japan’s Matsutomo and Takahashi who became heroes after scooping the Gold Medal in Rio. But Chen and Jia took their revenge in Dubai over the Japanese. Denmark’s Juhl and Pedersen are on a good roll and have the experience to shine as well.
In the Mixed Doubles, Chen and Zheng are the top seeds, but it will be no surprise if any of their closest competitors – Ahmad and Natsir, Fischer and Nielsen/Pedersen or local sweethearts Chris and Gabby Adcock – win in Birmingham.
INTERNATIONALBADMINTONMAGAZINE March 2017 | 11
www.isportgroup.com/InternationalBadmintonMagazine
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