With the World Championships a little more than a month away, a lot of focus will be on results in Kuala Lumpur. Players will be keen to implement their training on court and turn it into a run of form before flying out to Nanjing, China for the World Championships, 30 July – 5 August.
Reigning champion and current world number one Viktor Axelsen will be hoping to do just this in the Men’s Singles. Last time Axelsen was at the Axiata Arena was in January, for the Malaysia Masters. He went all the way to the title then, however the draw for the Malaysia Open has created a likely quarter-final meeting with home star Lee Chong Wei, who has a terrific record in Malaysia and defeated the Dane in straight games at the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals just last month. An intriguing re-match to look forward to.
In the Women’s Singles, European Champion Carolina Marin also has good form in Kuala Lumpur, after a semi-final result at the Malaysia Masters, where she lost just 23-21 in the third game to world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan. The Spaniard, who is the number 6 seed, looks set to meet the Indian number 3 seed P. V. Sindhu in the quarter-finals. This is almost guaranteed to be a hard-fought match, with Marin just edging the head to head 6 to 4.
Determined Danes in the Doubles
Denmark has strong seeds in all the doubles events. Particularly of interest are the returns of Denmark’s most experienced pairs in Men’s and Women’s Doubles, Mathias Boe with Carsten Mogensen (no. 2 seeds), and Christina Pedersen with Kamilla Rytter-Juhl (no. 3 seeds). Through injury set-backs, both pairs missed the European Championships and the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals, although Boe played with alternative partners in Mogensen’s absence. They will be very determined to pick-up where they left off when in great form. Especially for Pedersen and Rytter-Juhl, who became Malaysia Master’s champions in January, when beating the reigning world champions from China, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in final, while not dropping a game throughout the tournament.
The Malaysia Open will run from 26 June to 1 July.
For all the seedings, draws and fixtures click
here.