World Champions in group of death for inaugural HSBC BWF World Tour Finals

Guangzhou, Dec 10, 2018: Men’s Doubles world champions Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen have found themselves in Group A, which has been touted as the ‘Group of Death’ at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2018.

The draw, completed this morning in Guangzhou, saw Li/Liu placed in Group A with top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia), YONEX French Open champions Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong (China) and VICTOR China Open champions Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Denmark).

“It’s an interesting group,” said Rasmussen. “We have the world champions and the World No.1 and the young Chinese pair who are very good, and of course we won the China Open as well, so it’s a tough group but we are looking forward to it.”

Gideon/Sukamuljo, winners of eight World Tour titles this season, are favoured to defend their title, but the presence of Han/Zhou in their group will test their mettle as the young Chinese pair have beaten them twice this year.

Local dignitaries of Guangzhou were invited to conduct the draw, which consisted of the No.1 and No.2 seeds being placed at the top of Group A and Group B respectively, the No.3 and No.4 seeds picked by lots into one of the two groups, and the remaining players/pairs similarly picked into one of the two groups.

The top two players or pairs from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, for which a knockout draw will be conducted.

Another volatile group is Men’s Singles Group A, which has top seed Chou Tien Chen (Chinese Taipei), YONEX All England champion Shi Yuqi (China), YONEX-SUNRISE Hong Kong Open champion Son Wan Ho, and VICTOR

China Open champion Anthony Ginting (Indonesia).

Women’s Singles defending champion Akane Yamaguchi (Japan) is in Group A with Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei), Pusarla V Sindhu (India) and Beiwen Zhang (USA).

HSBC BWF World Tour/Men’s Singles (Group A)

Chou Tien Chen (Chinese Taipei)
Shi Yuqi (China)
Son Wan Ho (Korea)
Anthony Ginting (Indonesia)

Group B

Kento Momota (Japan)
Tommy Sugiarto (Indonesia)
Kantaphon Wangcharoen (Thailand)
Sameer Verma (India)

Women’s Singles (Group A)

Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei)
Akane Yamaguchi (Japan)
Pusarla V Sindhu (India)
Beiwen Zhang (USA)

Group B

Nozomi Okuhara (Japan)
Chen Yufei (China)
Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand)
Michelle Li (Canada)

HSBC BWF World Tour/Men’s Doubles (Group A)

Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)
Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong (China)
Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen (China)
Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Denmark)

Group B

Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-Lin (Chinese Taipei)
Liao Min Chun/Su Ching Heng (Chinese Taipei)
Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (Indonesia)
Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe (Japan)

HSBC BWF World Tour/Women’s Doubles (Group A)

Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (Japan)
Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia)
Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (China)
Du Yue/Li Yinhui (China)

Group B

Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (Japan)
Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai (Thailand)
Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan (Korea)
Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva (Bulgaria)

HSBC BWF World Tour/Mixed Doubles (Group A)

Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong (China)
Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand)
Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai (Malaysia)
Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith (England)

Group B

Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (Japan)
Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying (Malaysia)
Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (Indonesia)
Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping (China). Photo: Badminton Photo