It is less than a week before the World Championships in Nanjing, China. With the seeds are confirmed and the draw being made, everyone is looking who has a favourable draw and which of the European players have a strong of progressing through their particular section.

As usual, the men’s singles is lead by Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen who remains to be the number one seed. After a strong start to 2018 with title wins in Malaysia and the European Championships, Axelsen has fallen just short of a few more possible tournament victories. This includes a couple of defeats to Japan’s Kento Momota. But with the Japanese number one being drawn in the other half of the draw, Axelsen looks confident to going deep into the Nanjing event.

Despite being the tournament’s sixteenth seed, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen has struggled to find consecutive wins at the same tournament.With many potentially tricky Asian opponents being drawn in his section, Antonsen will be aiming to prove the critics wrong.

See also: World Championships – Countdown!!

After consecutive first round losses, Denmark’s Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen will be looking to avoid another upset defeat. Since March, it has been a tough road for the tournaments third seeded pair. With some tricky opponents lined up from the third round onwards, it may be another short trip for Denmark’s number one.

Even with not being Europe’s highest ranked pair, Denmark’s Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding look to be the most in-form pair and the best chance for some silverware in this event. A strong quarter-finals finish at the Indonesian Open a few weeks ago has given a healthy amount of match-time going into the World Championships.

Other pairs having a solid time last month of results are tournaments eighth and tenth seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, as well as Russian’s Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov.

Europeans best chance is mixed doubles

In terms of depth, the mixed doubles looks to be the event for a large amount of European interest going into the later rounds.

Leading the way are Danish fourth seeds Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen. Title wins in India, a European Championship final and some promising performance in Asia in the past month puts them in good stead.

The most in-form of the European mixed pairs are England’s Chris and Gabrielle Adcock. The Commonwealth Games champions have reached the semis of the Malaysia Open and the final of the Thailand Open a couple of weeks ago.

Other European seeds to watch out for are England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith, and also Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich. With both pairs putting on a memorable final at the Canada Open back in June,their recent form remains relatively strong going into the World Championships.

See also: Chris and Gabby Adcock beaten in Bangkok final

In the women’s doubles, since their win at the European Championships, there have been few wins to speak of Bulgaria’s Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva. But after begin given a favourable draw, the Stoeva sisters could sneak into contention.

The same could be said for fifteenth seeded Danish pair Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen. Without a title to their name this year, Fruergaard and Thygesen on the face of it look like an outside chance. But with strong performances in the major events this year could see them spring a surprise or two.

The sole European seed women’s singles player Carolina Marin will be looking to match her European Championship win earlier in the year with a World title.

With Marin having a fairly comfortably draw in the opening few rounds, the Olympic singles champion is aiming for a successful showing.

Other European players to watch out for are fellow Spaniard Beatriz Corrales and in-form English player Chloe Birch.

For a full list of the draws and results, click here.