At this point, I don't think LD cares all that much. It is just bad luck for those who have to face him in early rounds. Then again, it may be better to face him really early before he gets on track again. Not being seeded is not a penalty to LD but to those who are seeded but still get no protection.
Some interesting draw trivia. WS Lovely Bella is seeded #1 --in the WS qualifying round! Kaori Imabeppu is back, but also #3 is the qualifiers. Ratchanok may meet Chinese Bullet train LXR in the quarter-finals. If Sindhu gets past Sung Ji Hyun, she may have a chance at a rematch with WYH in the quarter-finals. Saina Nehwal has a tough draw from the first round, and it could be a very short IO for her is she's not physically in top form.
Draw trivia - MD: Qualifiers have a lot of young and talented INA pairs; all tricky customers! if some of them slip into the main round, we may even see an upset or two in R1.... BoMo have a possible meeting with the young CHN pair of Liu/Qiu at the quarter-finals stage. Can Ahsan/Hendra make it to the semis, past Endo/Hayakawa and maybe CY/FHF? KKK/TBH are seeded #3. If they get through Round 1 they will probably be looking into the angry eyes of Markis Kido and his partner Chandra... Can KSH get his act together for long enough to allow LYD a decent chance to move to the finals? Or will 2Kim stop them cold at the quarter-finals stage?
Draw trivia --WD: Look out for Jwala partnering Prajakta (the lady who was in the news for all the wrong reasons); they could slip through to the main round. A lot of young INA pairs are also hungrily waiting to make their move.... but... WZL/YY should be cruising all the way to the semis, where their first real test wil be... TJH/MJ! BYX is back in action! Partnering Shu Cheng this time, and their first match will be against JKE/KHN. A lot of hearts are gonna be broken, either way... The reliable old firm of ZYL/TQ is back together again, and that's not going to make Misaka/Ayaka very happy. So.... who's gonna stop WXL/YY?
Draw trivia -- XD: Hashimota/Maeda are seeded #2 in the qualifiers. If they go through, they will meet the qualifiers of Q1, possibly Yun/Ying of Hong Kong. In the main draw, the path to the finals looks pretty open for #2 seeds Ahmad/Natsir. Not so open for top seeds XC/MJ, who may meet Z/Z in the semis.
Lin Dan is the 3rd seed in qualification, which means as long as 3 players withdraw, Lin Dan will be in the main draw as a replacement. Based on the latest India open MS, there are exactly 3 PFRs, enough for LD in the main draw. In fact, I'd like to see LD playing Taufik in the first round. Taufik, as a multiple times winner at IO, deserves a good player send him farewell. Otherwise, Taufik has to surrender to someone like Takeshit or NoMo, as his last career finale.
Draw for INA XD pairs: Qualifying Rounds - 1 Pelatnas pair is in the draw (Edi Subaktiar/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja - both were World Junior Champions). They are expected to clear the first round against Liu Yi/Fu Mingtian, but the second round draw (with the main draw spot as a prize) will be very tough....against either Shen Ye/Tang Jinhua or Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Miyuki Maeda [2]. As for the other 3 pairs, they are also not expected to progress to the main draw. Main Draw: Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir [2] avoid the 2 top CHN pairs but they are expected to face 2 Danish pairs. R32 vs Mads Pieler Kolding/Kamilla Rytter-Juhl R16 vs either Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati or Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels - tough luck for Fran/Shendy. QF vs either Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying [5] or Qiu Zihan/Bao Yixin - I suspect the CHN pair will probably beat the out-of-form MAS pair. SF vs either Mohd Rijal/Debby Susanto [8] or Joachim Fischer-Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen [4] - Rijal/Debby have a relatively straight-forward route to QF and I expect them to fulfill their seeding! Meanwhile, the Danes have a tricky first-round encounter against the in-form Lee Chun Hei/Chau Hoi Wah. Pelatnas's young back-up pair of Lukhi Apri Nugroho/Annisa Saufika will face Chris Adcock/Gabrielle White and if they can win that match, the prize will be a learning experience against Fischer-Nielsen/Pedersen or Lee/Chau. Markis Kido/Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth are in the top-half of the draw and right in the first round, they have a tough tie against Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na. Ditto for Irfan Fadhilah/Weni Anggraini, who will face the top-seed Xu Chen/Ma Jin and Riky Widianto/Richi Dili Puspita who will be pitted against the defending champion Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam [6]. The last pair in the top-half is PB Djarum's Praveen Jordan/Vita Marissa, who will be expected to clear the first round (against Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponnappa) and will have an interesting match against Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba for a place in the last 8.
Damn! You guys are right; I'm getting old and sloppy! (and of course, you are trying to get me in trouble! ) OK, Draw trivia --MS: Lee Dong Keun's hardships are just beginning. He's in the qualifiers, and drawn to play a seasoned campaigner Anand Pawar who has been on a very good streak. Another trial for LDK, then. And if he qualifies, he'ell be up against Jan O! Oh, oh! The Indian guys (mostly) will probably all end up playing against each other in the first main round. But I'd be very interested in seeing how far Dino (Hayom to you) will go in this tournament. That guy needs to shake off his brain fog and understand there is nowhere left to hide, no excuses left. Taufik is now a part of history, and Sony and Simon are just proxies for a while, for INA MS. The possibility of one of the nicest rivalries happening again in the semi-final stage is huge: CL vs Tago! I'd love to see it happen, especially the way Tago has been rediscovering himself recently. Of course, no one's talking much about the defending champion, but Simon doesn't appear to be anywhere near what he was last year. And so, my pick for the title this year is........ Goofball! ......
I think Only qualfier 4 will be up against JOJ not qualifier 2 and LDK is in the fight for the place as "qualifier 2" i guess. And whoever qualifies as qualifier 2 will be up against Ajay Jayaram. So, there would not be any meeting between LDK vs JOJ . H.S.Prannoy will be going to fight it out with JOJ. I hope he will prove it here by beating JOJ comfortably. If sony is there, I think there is a less chance for Tago to go upto semifinals to meet ChenLong. Sony has got an excellent rest and would be in full energy. Definitely, he will move ahead till semifinals to meet ChenLong hoping that everything goes in favour of CL in the early rounds..
Again, there could be a great probability for a rematch between Saina nehwal vs Wang shixian in the quarterfinals, exactly similar to that in the last edition.. Hmmm hmm. Before that, she has to be careful against Japanese Sayaka in the second round (afterall, japanese has become the real threat to her nowadays...)
Lee Chong Wei's possible opponents: R32 - Wang Zhengming R16 - Lin Dan (if he shows up) QF - Boonsak Ponsana or Sho Sasaki SF - Du Pengyu F - Chen Long So, 4 CHN players in his path. Not easy definitely. Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka has to show positive results to his sponsor (Astec) in this tourney after the disappointment in the Sudirman Cup. I would say that he is handed quite a reasonable draw. A tricky opening against Vladimir Ivanov (still ranked below him) and then either Takuma Euda or the new WR4 Hu Yun! Both Sony Dwi Kuncoro [4] and Simon Santoso are still not fully fit yet, so, I don't expect them to go far. Sony will be tested by Chen Yuekun, while Simon faces Hans Kristian-Vittinghus. Tommy Sugiarto is perhaps handed the worst ever draw....3rd encounter against Chen Long in 3 weeks. Alamsyah Yunus is handed a tough draw in Kenichi Tago [5]. But if he can beat Tago, Marc Zweibler or Hsu Jen Hao will be his price in R16. In the qualifying rounds, Pelatnas's hope lies on Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo and Riyanto Subagja. Both face tough opponents for main draw tickets. Wisnu's first match is against Sourabh Varma, while Riyanto faces Chan Yan Kit.
