14-18 March 2018 | Arena Birmingham BWF released the draw yesterday, no qualification round following new-structured World Tour Super 1000 criteria where automatically only top 32 who can attend this prestigious US$1 million tournament unless there's withdrawal so reserved player could fill the vacant position. A tight competition is expected from the beginning in all five disciplines to enhance the status and match quality for premiere event. DRAW - Excel format : https://bwfextranet.com/docs/events...AW _Updated Tuesday, 20th February 2018_.XLSX - Tournamentsoftware : https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=4E6160C1-6ABB-43CF-A535-2F0175C84D7D Current men's singles new king, Viktor Axelsen is drawn with Son Wan Ho and Chinese A-listers, two-time winner Chen Long and last year beaten finalist Shi Yuqi. The Danish ace probably wouldn't come to Birmingham as he needs 3-5 weeks recovery post ankle surgery recently. Defending champion, Lee Chong Wei is slated to meet either Jan O Jorgensen or Lee DK at last sixteen before involving the classic showdown, against his nemesis Lin Dan in quarterfinal. Srikanth Kidambi and Chou Tien Chen are two remaining seeded players in lower-half of draw and barring any upset should meet at last eight. An early round stern test for world number one Tai Tzu Ying to defend her title here as she will take on Saina Nehwal. Chen Yufei leads China armada to seek better result in this discipline, once they showed strong dominance in last decade. 2017 runner-up Ratchanok Intanon and Korean number one Sung Ji Hyun completed the seeding position. The opposite draw is crowded with Japanese ladies Akane Yamaguchi, Nozomi Okuhara and their two fellow countrywomen to challenge two Rio Olympic medalists Carolina Marin and Pusarla V. Sindhu. The sensational duo Gideon/Sukamuljo will face their teammates in opening round Pratama/Saputro and if they clear first hurdle, it's possibility to face another compatriots in last sixteen. A projected intriguing semifinal, rematch of last year finale will see Indonesian hotshots against Li JH/Liu YC if the Chinese pair pass Conrad/Kolding. Three of four seeding combinations at bottom-half draw have complicated task to start their All England campaign, Kamura/Sonoda v Goh VS/Tan WK, Liu C/Zhang N v Liao MC/Su CH and Lee JH/Lee Y v 2016 champion Ivanov/Sozonov. China best hopeful reigning World Champion Chen QC/Jia YF need extraordinary performance to cope other tough challengers, primarily coming from Rising Sun land, a string of Japanese rivals will be their stumbling block en route to final, Fukuman/Yonao, Tanaka/Yonemoto and Fukushima/Hirota. Three pairs who made good start in this new season are drawn in lower-half, the Olympic Champion Matsutomo/Takahashi, Rio silver medalists Juhl/Pedersen and Indonesian latest formidable duo, Polii/Rahayu. Three-time champion Ahmad/Natsir occupy first seed position, the Indonesians should clear preliminary round considering their vast experience and capability, they likely would set a clash with Zhang N/Li YH in quarterfinal and either the on-fire HKG pair Tang CM/Tse SY or crowd favourite The Adcocks at last four. Two Chinese combinations are top contenders to enter last round, Zheng SW/Huang YQ and Wang YL/Huang DP while Denmark latest partnerships Christiansen/Pedersen and former winner Jordan/Susanto represent main threat for the Chinese.
to be able to qualify for the tournament. As new pairs, their points are not enough to participate in AE
So, srikanth might have a big chance of becoming world no. 1 Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk
Looking forward to a Lee Hyun Il vs Anthony Ginting final. Graceful elder versus youthful firecracker.
Yup, Jordan/Oktavianti or Suwardi/Susanto low-ranking can't fulfill Super 1000 criteria, then PBSI force the old partner Jordan/Susanto paired up once again in All England, who knows they would spring surprise there... Gao Fangjie WR is still not enough to be qualified in AE. Tian Houwei? He didn't take part any BWF tournament starting from January, what happened to him? Injury problem? I'm afraid his fate will follow Wang ZM.
which brings up a ?'n regarding top committed players rule: if a top 10 pair splits up will they be fined for not playing the next wt 750/1000 together?
Sure, unless they're still playing with their respective new partner. In the case Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong absent here, there will be no penalty since both players still join with their respective partner.
Has not had MD winner back to back in AllEngland since Ricky/Rexy (20 years ago) seems like its a curse, can it be broken this year?
