World Championships get underway
A busy and full day ahead for players and teams as 64 matches get underway at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, for the opening day of the TotalEnergie4s BWF World Championships 2023.
All eyes will be on the exciting men’s singles duel (Match 8) between two of the sports’ notable names, world No. 5 Jonatan Christie (INA) and (MAS) Lee Zii Jia (WR#17) at Court 2 for a place in the round of 2.
It’s their 8th time battling on the same court with the last three matches at last year's Denmark Open and Asian Championships and the 2020 All England Championship.
The other interesting encounter would be between Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong (WR#22) and China’s Zhao Jun Peng (WR#26) while India’s Kidambi Srikanth (WR#19) and world No.14, Kenta Nishimoto square off in another exciting battle today.
For other seeded Asians, former champion (SGP) Loh Kean Yew (WR#7) should have no problem against (ESP) Pablo Abian (ESP) while Chou Tien Chen (TPE), Prannoy H.S. Laksya Sen (IND), Kunvalut Vitidsarn (THA), Li Shi Feng, Shi Yuqi (CHN) and Angus Ng (HKG) should, barring any upsets, sail through into Round 2.
World No.1 and defending champion Viktor Axelsen and compatriot Anders Antonsen, only two non-Asians in the top 16 bracket, should also check into the next round with ease.
In the women’s singles, while all 14 Asian seeded players start their campaign in tomorrow’s Round 2, the focus would be on Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei (MAS), Putri Kusuma Wardani (INA) and Nozomi Ohura (JPN) in today’s Round of 64.
Eight matches on the cards in men’s doubles as four Asian pairs – Akira Koga/Taichi Saito (JPN), Lee Jhe Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan (TPE), Supak Jomkoh/Kittinupong Kedren (THA) and Christian Bernardo/Alvin Morada (PHI) fight for a ticket in the main draw.
Danish’s World No.11 Kim Astrup-Anders Rasmussen and Bulgaria’s Stoeva siblings of Gabriela and Stefani are the only non-Asian seeded pairs in the men’s doubles and women’s doubles respectively.
In the mixed doubles, an interesting preliminary encounter between Japan’s Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsumoto and world No.19 pair Dejan Ferdiansyah-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia awaits. While Europe has three representatives in the top 16 seeds, Asia is expected to rule with China looking likely to continue its domination.
