Jayce
As the pre-Olympic season unfolds, we are fortunate to attend the KFF Singapore Badminton Open this week and witness the best players in the badminton world coming together.
After the Toyota Thailand Open and the Malaysia PERODUA Masters in recent weeks, we eagerly anticipate the top players returning in style. With only a few months remaining until the Olympics, these tournaments may give us a clear indication of who will be the biggest challengers for the gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.
Women’s Singles
Spain’s Carolina Marin has been unbeaten in her last 15 matches and has won three consecutive titles, setting high expectations. However, she will face fierce competition from Chen Yufei, An Se-Young, Tai Tzu-Ying, Akane Yamaguchi, and Malaysia Masters champion Han Yue. It is always difficult to predict the winner when such top players gather together. Nonetheless, it will be fascinating to see these stars compete against each other when they return to the court in a month.
Men’s Singles
Viktor Axelsen’s victory in Malaysia was a delightful surprise, especially after the world No. 1 had been disappointed by a series of early losses. In this tournament, he will face top players including Shi Yuchi, his compatriot Anders Antonsen, Jonathan Christie, Kento Momota, Anthony Ginting, and Prannoy.
Women’s Doubles
From the first round, we will witness a top European showdown with two of the best women’s pairs: Margot Lambert/Annie Chen and Mckennah Fleulgaard/Sara Tiggesson. They have faced each other twice at the 2024 European Championships, each winning one match. The Stoeva sisters, who won bronze at the Malaysia Masters last week, will compete against Taipei’s Hong Yi-Ting/Li Yu-Hsuan.
Mixed Doubles
Defending champions Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Bøje will certainly hope to replicate last year’s victory. However, considering their performance since last year’s impressive win has been less remarkable, it would be quite surprising if they succeeded again.
Men’s Doubles
In men’s doubles, we have Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, Christo Popov/Thomas Junior Popov, Daniel Lundgaard/Mads Vestergaard, as well as Bjarne Geis/Jann Collin Völker, Alexander Dunn/Adam Hall, and Rasmus Kjær/Frederik Sogaard. Lundgaard/Vestergaard will face world No. 1 Rankireddy/Shetty. The Popov brothers will compete against China’s Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, and Astrup/Rasmussen will face Dunn/Hall in an epic European showdown.
