For MD, the top 4 pairs (Fu/Cai, Lee/Jung, Boe/Mogensen, and Ko/Yoo) as well as Koo/Tan are ALL absent from this tourney. This represents an excellent opportunity for either Bona Septano/Mohd Ahsan or Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan to win a title.
The main pairs to beat are: the top-seed Guo/Chai (and the other younger pairs Shen/Hong and Liu/Qiu), the three dangerous Japanese pairs (Hashimoto/Hirata, Kawamae/Sato, and Endo/Hayakawa) plus Fang/Lee and the unpredictable European pairs (Rasmussen/Conrad-Petersen, Kindervater/Schoettler, and Fuchs/Roth).