2015 World Badminton Championship Draw Announced in a Glittering Ceremony at Jakarta

Jakarta’s Museum Bank Indonesia was a beehive of activity from 11AM local time on July 28, 2015. It was the venue of the official draw for the Total BWF World Championships 2015. Other than the BWF President Poul-Erik Hoyer, draw ceremony was also graced by Achmad Budiharto, Deputy Secretary General of PBSI; Rita Subowo, Chairperson, National Olympic Committee of Indonesia; Christopher Kasibi and General Manager Retail & Marketing of Total Indonesia. These distinguished people applied personal touches with mouse clicks to formally announce the draw in each of the five categories after computer software had technically resolved the draw from a multitude of possibilities. As per the draw, defending champion Chen Long and his potential rivals Lin Dan/Lee Chong Wei have appeared in separate halves. Carolina Marin is the top seeded woman in singles and India’s Saina Nehwal is no.2. In men’s doubles, Korea’s Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong are top seeds and the Danish pair of Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen are seeded second. In women’s doubles, the Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi are the top seeds and Chinese twins Luo Ying/Luo Yu are seeded as no.2. The two top seeds in mixed doubles are from China with Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei seeded no.1 and Xu Chen/Ma Jin seeded no.2.

In presence of a big gathering, the dignitaries took turns to announce the draws in each category of 2015 Jakarta World Championships. BWF President Poul-Erik Hoyer formally unveiled the draw for men and women’s singles; Achmad Budiharto announced the mixed doubles draw; Rita Subowo did it for men’s doubles and Christopher Kasibi declared the women’s doubles draw.

In men’s singles, the big three; Chen Long, Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei have been drawn to avert meeting each other in early rounds. While Chen Long is in the top half, Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei appear in the bottom half. But that has made the draw quite tough for the second seeded Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark. Defending champion Chen Long looks like having an easy course until the quarterfinals. And since Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei are in different quarters, they won’t clash with each other early. Jan O Jorgensen has a first round face-off with the Wily Thai, Boonsak Ponsana, after which he has a third round match with Korea’s no.9 seed Son Wan Ho. If the Dane comes through, he will meet five-time World champion Lin Dan.

Lee Chong Wei has been drawn to meet Lithuania’s Kestutis Navickas in first round and possibly Germany’s Marc Zwiebler next. If upsets are avoided in Lee’s quarter, the Malaysian will next face China’s Wang Zhengming followed by India’s Kidambi Srikanth in the quarter-finals. Japan’s no.4 seed Kento Momota is likely to have an easy progress to the semi-final in the top half if he beats India’s Kashyap Parupalli and Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen.

Women’s Singles defending champion Carolina Marin must be pleased with the draw as her biggest test does not come before the possible quarterfinal meeting with China’s no.7 seed Wang Shixian. In the top half, no.3 seeded Chinese Li Xuerui is expected to meet India’s PV Sindhu in the third round before possibly running into either Korean Sung Ji Hyun or the Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the quarter-finals. India’s second seeded player Saina Nehwal has been drawn to face China’s Wang Yihan in the quarter-final.

In men’s doubles, defending champions and seventh seeded Koreans Shin Baek Choel/Ko Sung Hyun will face Malaysia’s Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong in the second round and Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan (China) in the third. If the Korean duo comes through, they will run into no.2 seeds Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in the quarterfinal. The other Korean pair of Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong are seeded no.1 and their passage to quarterfinals look easier. Indonesians Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan are seeded no.3 and they could have a tough third round with Japan’s Kenta Kazuno/Kazushi Yamada and a quarterfinal clash with either Lee Sheng Mu/Tsai Chia Hsin of Taiwan or Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark.

Women’s doubles defending champions Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei of China are seeded no.5 and they find themselves in the same quarter as veteran compatriots Yu Yang/Wang Xiaoli. With top seeds Japanese Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka and local hopes Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishinda Maheswari also featuring in the same half, a great tussle is on cards. No.2 seeds Luo Ying/Luo Yu (China) have a relatively smooth draw as they are expected to beat Malaysians Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei in third round followed by Japan’s Miyuki Maeda/Reika Kakiiwa in quarters. Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl are in the same quarter as China’s Ma Jin/Tang Yuanting and Korea’s Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan.

In the mixed doubles draw, a quarter-final clash is on cards between defending champions and top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei and Denmark’s no.5 seeds Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen. The winners could face no.3 seeded Indonesians Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir. But the Indonesians will have to first beat strong pairs like Hong Kong’s Lee Chun Hei/Chau Hoi Wah and Korea’s Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na. In the bottom half of the mixed doubles draw, Chinese second seeds Xu Chen/Ma Jin may run into compatriots and no.6 seeds Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong in the quarter-final.