Bhubaneswar: Badminton World Federation has announced the draw for BWF World Tour Finals here on Tuesday. The tournament will take place from December 1 to 5 in Bali, Indonesia.
In women’s singles, reigning world champion PV Sindhu had a good draw, as she is placed alongside ‘All England Open Badminton Championships’ runner-up Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand, Germany’s Yvonne Li and Line Christophersen of Denmark in Group A.
The ace Indian player has a dominating head-to-head record against all the three shuttlers. Also, Sindhu is the only Indian to win the BWF World Tour Finals, when she was triumphant in the year 2018.
The two-time Olympic medalist defeated the German shuttler Yvonne Li in their only meeting; in the recently concluded Indonesia open 2021.
Sindhu and Danish player Christophersen, previously locked horns on two occasions and Sindhu registered a victory over the Dane in both the meetings.
In men’s Singles, there will be a tough task for debutante Lakshya Sen, as he will have to rub his shoulders with heavyweights like World no.1 Kento Momota, Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Viktor Axelsen and Rasmus Gemke(Denmark) in group A. It will be a tall order for the youngster to steal the show over his established rivals.
Also, Lakshya becomes the youngest Indian who made the cut for the year-end tournament at the age of 20, after the world no.4 Chao Tien Chen failed to qualify.
Former world no.1 Kidambi Srikanth secured his spot for the second successive time. In 2020, Srikanth failed to advance to the quarterfinals after losing all three group stage matches.
Srikanth is placed in a Group B alongside 2021 All England champion Lee Zii Jia of Malyasia, Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand and Frenchman Toma Junior Popov.
For the first time, men’s and women’s doubles pair from India have made the cut for the flagship event.
The dynamic duo of Satwik Sairaj and Chirag Shetty became the first men’s doubles pair to be featured in the world tour finals after their dramatic last minute qualification.
The Indian duo will face world No. 1 Indonesian pair Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya; whom against they suffered a loss in the Indonesia Open 2021 semi-finals, Tokyo Olympic Gold medalists Lee Yang and Wang Chi Lin of Chinese Taipei and Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen of Denmark in Group A.
In women’s doubles Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are placed in group B along with Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida (Japan), Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva (Bulgaria), Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith (Britain).
This year, India is sending its best ever contingent with as many as seven Indian shuttlers made the cut to the major international tournament.
The top two players and pairs from each group will advance to the knockout round of the USD 150,000 event.
