With two of the favourites to take the title, Korea and Japan, and two of Europe’s strongest teams, France and England, all the squads in Group D will certainly put a fight to advance to the quarterfinals.
Now that we have delved into
Group A,
Group B, and
Group C, it is now time to take a look at the fourth and last group. The TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2023 is starting tonight and will be taking place until Sunday 21 May.
Group D has two of this year’s Sudirman Cup heavyweights. Japan has already won three silvers whereas Korea holds a total of four golds and four silvers. Despite their past results, not having earned any medals in the history of the event just yet, the two Europeans in the group — France and England — are ready to show their strengths on court.
Especially France, after a great performance at the EMTC in February, is ready to challenge the favourites. Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue can take on any mixed doubles pair in the world and the Popov brothers in men’s doubles and men’s singles have also proven to be a challenge for the best in the world.
England is also stacked with top-stars. Ben Lane and Sean Vendy as well as Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis are the biggest names on the list and will try to lead the squad to some upsets but this year's edition might be a little too early for England’s young singles talents to be competitive on the biggest stage.
The first matchups tonight will be Korea against France and England against Japan. You can follow all matches live on the BWF YouTube channel.
Find below the full squads for the teams in Group D.
England
Male players:
Nadeem Dalvi, Marcus Ellis, Cholan Kayan, Ben Lane, Sean Vendy
Female players:
Chloe Birch, Lisa Curtin, Freya Redfearn, Lauren Smith, Estelle Van Leeuwen
France
Male players:
Lucas Corvée, Thom Gicquel, Ronan Labar, Alex Lanier, Christo Popov, Toma Junior Popov
Female players:
Delphine Delrue, Léonice Huet, Margot Lambert, Xuefei Qi, Anne Tran
Japan
Male Players:
Takuro Hoki, Yugo Kobayashi, Akira Koga, Kodai Naraoka, Kenta Nishimoto, Taichi Saito, Kanta Tsuneyama, Yuta Watanabe, Kyohei Yamashita
Female Players:
Yuki Fukushima, Arisa Higashino, Sayaka Hirato, Saena Kawakami, Mayu Matsumoto, Nami Matsuyama, Wakana Nagahara, Chiharu Shida, Naru Shinoya, Akane Yamaguchi
Korea
Male Players:
Sol Gyu Choi, Hyeok Jin Jeon, Min Hyuk Kang, Won Ho Kim, Yun Gyu Lee, Sung Seung Na, Seung Jae Seo
Female Players:
An Se Young, Ha Na Baek, Yu Jung Chae, Na Eun Jeong, Ga Eun Kim, Hye Jeong Kim, So Yeong Kim, Hee Yong Kong, So Hee Lee