General

Tough draw for Jan Ø. Jørgensen
Date: 11/18/2015 1:59 AM
Published by : Manuel Røsler
The Yonex Hong Kong Open Superseries will see quite a few stars when the 350.000 Dollars event kicks off in the Hongkong Coliseum on Wednesday. European Champions Jan Ø. Jørgensen of Denmark and Spaniard Carolina Marin will play Wednesday, along with former champions Chris and Gabby Adcock and seventh seed men’s singles star Viktor Axelsen.

Carolina Marin, winner of this year’s Yonex All-England, Malaysia Open, Australian Open and Yonex French Open, is trying to win her fifth Superseries tournament. While top seeded Marin is the favorite, she has to navigate a field of a few strong Asian players who have the same goal.

Marin may be tested by one of the up-and-coming players, Akana Yamaguchi (Japan) or Busanan Ongbumrungphan of Thailand, at an early stage of the competition. She could face China’s Wang Yihan in the semi-finals en route to a finals showdown with Li Xuerui of China, the Olympic champion.

Carolina Marin is the only European shuttler in the women’s singles field.

Jørgensen’s draw is definitely not an easy one

Jan Ø.  Jørgensen’s draw doesn't appear to be an easy one. Definitely not! Wang Zhengming (round 1), probably Hu Yun and then Korea’s number one Son Wan Ho or world number six K. Srikanth of India are all that stand in his way from that semi-final  showdown with his compatriot Viktor Axelsen.

Meanwhile, Axelsen’s draw is more or less pretty straightforward until he reaches a potential quarter-final match against Japanese number one shuttler Kento Momota. Axelsen will face Japanese qualifier Kazumasa Sakai in his opening match.
 
Former European Champion (2012) Marc Zwiebler will face French number one Brice Leverdez in the first round. The winner will play French Open and China Open Superseries champion Lee Chong Wei.

Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen will play European Champions Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov in their opening round. The winner of this exciting match has Endo/Hayakawa (Japan) in their quarter.  Denmark’s Mads Conrad and Mads Kolding, runner-ups of this year’s French Open, got a tough task as they will be meeting one of China‘s best men’s doubles duo, Hong Wei and Chai Biao.

Kamilla Rytter-Juhl/Christinna Pedersen and Selena Piek/Eefje Muskens are the only two pairs from Europe in the women’s doubles event. The third seeded Danes will face Kititharakul/Prajongjai, while Piek/Muskens, the world number 9,  play Hsu/Pai of Taiwan on Wednesday.

Deja-vu for the Adcocks

It will be mixed doubles' deja-vu for Chris and Gabby Adcock this week. As at the China Open, the Adcocks are sixth seeds where they will also play Korean pair Shin Baek Cheol and Yoo Jung Chae, who they first beat at the Yonex Japan Open in September and then in the opening round in Fuzhou last week.

The Adcocks’ path to the business end of the competition has been given a boost as they are seeded to reach the semi-finals, without any higher-seeded opposition in their way.

Dutch duo of Jacco Arends and Selena Piek, world number 13, play a pair from Thailand in the opening round.

China Open runner-ups Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen skipped the Hong Kong Open Superseries.

Must-See First-Round Matches:

MS: Marc Zwiebler (GER) vs Brice Leverdez (FRA)
MS: Jan Ø. Jørgensen (DEN) vs Wang Zhengming (CHN)
WS: Carolina Marin (ESP) vs Sindhu Venkata (IND)
MD: Conrad/Kolding (DEN) vs Chai/Hong (CHN)
MD: Boe/Mogensen (DEN) vs Ivanov/Sozonov (RUS)
XD: Adock/Adcock (ENG) vs Shin/Chae (KOR)

Previous Hong Kong Open champions from Europe:


2013 Chris Adcock/Gabby Adcock (ENG)
2010 Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen (DEN)
2009 Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba (POL)
1998 Camilla Martin (DEN) & Michael Søgaard/Rikke Olsen (DEN)
1997 Peter Gade (DEN)

Click here for all champions of the tournament since 1982.

Click here for all results from Hong Kong.

Article by Manuel Rösler. Photos (LIVE) by BadmintonPhoto.
©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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