Top Players to Watch Out for the Badminton Asia Championships
Top Players to Watch Out for the Badminton Asia Championships
On April 26, Asia’s best shuttlers descend to Muntinlupa for the latest edition of the Badminton Asia Championships.
With the depth of talent that we have owing to the continent’s domination of the sport, it’s a massive headache for us to get the best of the lot
And here are the top players to watch out for at the Badminton Asia Championships.
- Kento Momota
The Japanese lefty is the top seed in a stacked men’s singles draw, with the world number 2 leading the six men who are in the top ten in the BWF rankings.
The former two-time world champ is the reigning two-time Asian Champion, having beaten Chinese opponents in the last two times it was staged in Wuhan.
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- Akane Yamaguchi
Small, but terrible is a massive understatement to the reigning world champion, who like Momota is defending her Asian crown.
Also, Yamaguchi is the top seed in an already competitive women’s singles draw, where all of the eight seeded players are inside the top 15 in the BWF World Rankings including two past world champions. It still packs a punch considering that there’s no Number 1, 3, and 8 in the field.
- Loh Kean Yew
The reigning world champion from Singapore should not be disrespected at all, despite only being seeded sixth on his third continental tilt after getting bounced at the first round in his previous two stints.
Even without the likes of former two-time world champ Chen Long, the draw is stacked with Loh set on a collision course with Indonesia’s Jonathan Christie and even Momota in the top half of the bracket.
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- Indonesia’s Daddies
This badminton-crazy country does not fret about the absence of the Minions (of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya) but the duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan should not be taken for granted at all.
The top-seed of the men’s doubles are the heavy favorites to win the whole thing and were even blessed with a luck of the draw when Okamura and Onodera of Japan withdrew, giving them a free walk to round two.
It is a draw that is stacked with talent, even without the reigning Olympic champs from Chinese Taipei, as the other Japanese pair of Hoki and Kobayashi and the Indian tandem of Rankireddy and Shetty expected to give them a fair challenge down the road. Page Break
5. Chen And Jia
The undisputed queens of women’s doubles are relieved that they will not see the Indonesian pair of Greysia Polli and Apriyani Rahayu there, as the stinging defeat at the Tokyo Olympics is still fresh to them.
In other words, the Chinese pair who are the reigning world champs are seeing the two Korean pairs (Lee/Shin and Kim/Kong), and the returning Japanese pair of Fukushima and Hirota as their key opponents.
