Written By : Sandru
Malaysia can count themselves lucky to be among the top eight seeds in the Sudirman Cup badminton tournament in Vantaa, Finland next month.
Malaysia, eyeing to reach the semis for only the second time, are the joint fifth to eighth seeds along with South Korea, Thailand and Denmark.
Newly crowned Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen should spearhead Denmark’s challenge as the only European team ranked in the top eight.
Title holders China are the top seeds ahead of Japan. Taiwan will go into the prestigious world mixed team competition as the third seeds for the first time along with Indonesia.
The Taiwanese will be a force to be reckoned with as they have world No. 4 men’s singles player Chou Tien-chen, Tokyo Olympic women’s singles silver medallist and world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying and the Olympic men’s doubles champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin.
It is important for Malaysia to get a top eight seeding as it will mean they will not face any of the big guns in the early group stage.
The competition will be played initially in groups followed by a knockout draw.
The 16 teams will play in four groups of four. The total ranking points of the three highest ranked one men’s singles player, one women’s singles player, one men’s doubles pair, one women’s doubles pair and one mixed doubles pair from each country, will be used to determine the overall strength of the team.
But India will be the one most teams will not want to meet early. India along with England, Canada, Germany, Russia, France, Australia and Egypt are in the ninth to 16th seed-bracket.
India’s group will be considered the group of death when the draw is made on Aug 25.
India’s coach P. Gopichand was happy with the seedings.
“India have strong players in all departments. We hope we can do well. We’re fine with the seeding,” he told the local media.
At the last Sudirman Cup in Nanning, China two years ago, Malaysia were drawn with India and China in the early group stage. Malaysia edged India 3-2 but lost 0-5 to China.
In the quarter-finals, Malaysia lost 0-3 to Japan. The Japanese team settled for silver after they were beaten 3-0 by hosts China.
Malaysia will be counting on national No. 1 Lee Zii Jia and the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in the men’s doubles as well as the up and coming young women’s doubles pairing of Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yuan, who are ranked 11th in the world now.
Malaysia have only reached the semi-finals once. Their best achievement was achieved in the 2009 edition in China when they reached the last four, going down 0-3 to the hosts.
Finland, who took over at the last minute as the hosts from China, will only get to play if a team pull out of the tournament.
The Sudirman Cup is the first of three major tournaments taking place in Europe in the last quarter of the year. The Thomas and Uber Cup Finals will be in Aarhus, Denmark from Oct 9-17 while the World Championships is scheduled to take place in Huelva, Spain, from Dec 12-19.
