Jaquet has had an indifferent 2016 with a string of first round losses but a run to the quarter final in Prague three weeks ago and a win over Denmark’s Sofie Holmboe Dahl before losing out to eventual winner Beiwen Zhang at Dutch Open last week show a glimmer of some form ahead of her home event. 

The Swiss number one benefits from a bye in the opening round and could not have picked a better draw herself avoiding some of the form players such as Panuga Riou (ENG) and Iben Bergstein (DEN) who are nestled together in the bottom half. 

A Swiss pair also occupy the top seeding in mixed doubles with Oliver Schaller and Celine Burkhart (pictured below). Again a decent draw for the Swiss pair with Germany’s Richard Domke and Jennifer Karnott the biggest threat in the top half. 

Jaquet also partners up with her long time mixed doubles partner Anthony Dumartheray for an assault on the mixed doubles title but a match against Denmark’s Bjerregaard and Aalestrup will test their form as early as round 2. 

Fuchs swaps racket for shirt and tie

Shortly after the Olympic Games German great Michael Fuchs was unveiled as Swiss Badminton’s new Director of Sport. The German swapping his racket for a shirt and tie, well except for this week at the Swiss International that is. 

In an interesting pairing Fuchs lines out alongside Oliver Schaller with the Swiss player sure to benefit for the Germans wealth of experience and class on court.  Malaysian duo Goh and Izzuddin will be favourites after a decent showing at the Dutch Open last week where they made the semi-final, only losing out to eventual winners Lee & Lee in Almere. 

The men’s singles draw is an open book with a handful of players in with a shout of success. Ukraine’s Pochtarov is top seed and only played 1 rally in Almere last week so will be fresh. Parsons (ENG), Fransman (NED), and Bjerregaard (DEN) and Nilsson (SWE) are others that are likely to figure. 

Finally, it is hard to see beyond an all Malaysian final in the women’s doubles with semi-final pairs from Almere last week on opposite sides of the draw. Ancelly and Teoh are top seeds with Lim and Goh in the bottom half. 

Europe’s best opportunity may be Dutch pair Seinen and Tableing but a second round match against the Lim and Goh will tell us a lot very early on in the competition. 

The action kicks off in Yverdon-les-Bains on Thursday and to view all draws for the 2016 Swiss International click HERE