(Badminton news) The TotalEnergies BWF World Championship is scheduled to start from tomorrow as the top shuttlers get ready for the last event of the year. One of the biggest news to come out of the championship is the withdrawal of major players from the Indonesian side because of the pandemic including defending champion and world no 2 Kento Momota. On the women’s side, Nozomi Okuhara and Carolina Marin have also announced they would not be taking part. Given below are the top four players to watch out for in the event.
An Se-young
The 19 year old has been on a roll as she has won the past three events. She has 7 podium finishes this year including a quarterfinal finish at the All England Championship. Se-Young had beaten Pornpawee Chochuwong, Akane Yamaguchi and PV Sindhu on her way to win the World Tour Finals at Indonesia while only dropping a single game. Before the Tour Finals she had won back to back titles without dropping a game.
Pornpawee Chochuwong
Chochuwong was placed third in the last two events she played, she made her debut in the top ten 8 months ago. She was the runner up at the All England Championship after defeating PV Sindhu in the semifinal which saw her concede 9 points in the second game. She has lost to Se-young in the semifinals in the last two events and would not want to end the year with a hat trick of losses to the Korean.
Viktor Axelsen
Axelsen has been in a winning run this year, he is searching for a title hat trick with victories in Tour Finals and at the Indonesia Open. His shock loss was at the Daihatsu Masters in which he lost to HS Prannoy in a three game match that lasted for an hour. Axelsen had the Bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics but this time won the gold at Tokyo, the world number one has played 63 matches this year and has only lost 4 of them
Anders Antonsen
Antonsen has been the latest player from Denmark to make an entry into the top ten rankings. He had to withdraw from the quarterfinals at the Indonesia Open due to an issue with the pectoral muscle. Antonsen lost in the finals at the Daihatsu Masters to Kento Momota and had won the Tour Finals last year beating countryman Axelsen in the final.
