Dissecting the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2022 women’s singles draw
In our previous article, we took apart the men’s draw of the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2022. This time it is the ladies’ turn as we analyze the women’s singles bracket.
Unlike the men’s side, seeded players start playing in the second round. A surprise damper to the hostilities is the withdrawal of India’s top women’s singles shuttler and 2019 world champion PV Sindhu.
Nevertheless, there is still a lot to go through with the rest of the bracket.
On the first section, defending champion Yamaguchi Akane could have Takahashi Sayaka as her third-round opponent. This is if the latter surpasses either Kim Ga-Eun of South Korea or Line Kjærsfeldt of Denmark in her first match. Next up for the winning Japanese is either Carolina Marín of Spain or He Bingjiao of China.
South Korea’s An Se-young’s group may be down one seeded player, but she first has to contend with the winner in the first-round clash between Ōhori Aya of Japan and Nguyễn Thùy Linh of Vietnam.
As has been pointed out, the upper part of the bottom half of the draw is all about the Thai contingent of former world champion Ratchanok Intanon, possible second-round adversary Phittayaporn Chaiwan, and probable third-round opposition Pornpawee Chochuwong.
Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu-Ying section has an interesting cast of characters: sixth seed Okuhara Nozomi of Japan, tenth-ranked Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, and 11th seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark.
Other players to watch out for include Malvika Bansod and Saina Nehwal of India, Soniia Cheah Su Ya and Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia, Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia, Vũ Thị Trang of Vietnam, and Sim Yu-jin of South Korea.