Cannot wait for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics? Well, it is time to crank up the excitement with the draw. Find out about the key group stage matchups in Tokyo!
A total of 87 male and 86 female players representing 50 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from the five Continental Confederations have been selected.
The draw took place today at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, England. Here are the groups.
Men’s singles
The big question was, who will be drawn on Kento Momota’s side of the draw for a prospective semifinal with the strong home favourite?
Number three seed Anders Antonsen, the reigning European Games and European Championship gold medallist was drawn in Group L with the rallying Vietnamese veteran, Tien Minh Nguyen, and Ade Resky Dwicahyo, making Azerbaijan’s debut badminton appearance.
This meant that Antonsen looks down towards the second seed, Tien Chen Chou, as his most likely opponent in the final four. With Chou in Group P, Canada’s Brian Yang and Centre of Excellence (CoE) player Felix Burestedt of Sweden complete the trio. However, both must be wary of reigning Olympic Champion, Chen Long, who lingers in the lower half of the draw in Group N.
This means that fourth seed Viktor Axelsen, former World Champion and long-standing rival of Momota will have one eye on that potential semifinal clash. It’s on. The two have played 15 times, with Axelsen’s only victory coming in 2014.
Axelsen is in an all-European group with Austria’s Luka Wraber and Finland’s Kalle Koljonen, which will be the repeat of the European Championships semifinal from this year.
The European Games 2019 runner up, Brice Leverdez, 35, is known for an early giant-killing but will have to dig deep against ninth seed and All England champion Lee Jii Zia.
Training at the CoE, Matthew Abela from Malta, who was confirmed as the second Maltese athlete to form part of the Maltese contingent for the Tokyo Games, is in Group H with eleventh seed Shi Yuqi, and Surinamese player, Soren Opti.
Fellow CoE player, Aram Mahmoud, was one of 29 members of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. He is sandwiched between two tough opponents with Singapore's Loh Kean yew and Indonesia’s seventh-seeded Jonatan Christie.
Women’s singles
The highest-seeded European, Mia Blichfeldt, was drawn in Group I with Australian Hsuan-yu Wendy Chen and Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri. The latter has shown in the past that she can cause an upset to top her Olympic group as she did in Rio.
European bronze medallist, Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit, is in Group A with top seed Chen Yufei.
There is an eye-catching European clash between Germany’s Yvonne Li and ROC player, Evgeniya Kosetskaya. Completing the trio in Group E is the number three seed and reigning Olympic bronze medallist, Nozomi Okuhara.
As happened in the Euro 2020 football, there is a French-Swiss clash in Group P between France’s Qi Xuefei and Sabrina Jaquet of Switzerland. Also in the only four-player group, we find the number two seed, Tai Tzu Ying.
Team GB’s Kirsty Gilmour will have a tough battle with Akane Yamaguchi in Group L and Slovakian CoE player, Martina Repiska, is drawn with Canada’s ninth-seeded Michelle Li and Guatemalan, Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor.
Men’s doubles
The reigning European Champions from Kyiv, ROC pair Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov and the de-throned former champions, Kim Astrup/ Anders Skaarup Rasmussen get the opportunity to battle against each other to qualify from Group B which also features the fourth seeds, Hiroyuki Endo/ Yuta Watanabe.
Mark Lamsfuss/ Marvin Seidel, European silver medallists, have been drawn into an interesting group. Both higher seeds are within grasp. They got the better of Japan’s Takeshi Kamura/ Keigo Sonoda at the Thomas Uber Cup Finals in 2018 and although the C.V. of Li Jun Hui/ Liu Yuchen is impressive, they have been away from the court for a while and it will be their first encounter.
Team GB’s Ben Lane/ Sean Vendy will have a tough ride at their first Olympics. Drawn in Group A they will face the top seeds, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/ Marcus Gideon, and Lee Yang/ Wang Chi-Lin, who they played twice in Thailand this year and came up short in both clashes.
Women’s doubles
Two-time European Champions, Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva, feel they have a good chance to go into the knockout stages, however, will have to do it the hard way in Group D with three tough fixtures. The Bulgarian sisters know their opponents well, and on their good day, they have proven to can be dangerous.
Maiken Fruergaard/ Sara Thygesen are drawn with fourth seeds Lee Sohee/ Shin Seungchan of Korea, but will be looking at their clash with China’s Du Yue/ Li Yin Hui with interest. In 2018, they defeated them in their own backyard, so will be looking for the same in Tokyo.
Prior to the draw, it was noted how Chloe Birch/ Lauren Smith, 2021 European Championships silver medallists, have caused the number one seeds, Yuki Fukushima/ Sayaka Hirota problems. Well, they have the chance to convert that to a win and where better to do it than at the Olympic Games.
The 2019 European Games gold medallists, Selena Piek/ Cheryl Seinen will be perhaps the best pleased with their draw into Group B. Their hurdles to surpass are in the form of Pan Am and African entries, Kristen Tsai/ Rachel Honderich and Doha Hany/ Hadia Hosny, before sharing the court with double World Champions, Mayu Matsumoto/ Wakana Nagahara of Japan.
Mixed doubles
Dutch duo Robin Tabeling/ Selena Piek have been drawn into a tricky Group A with number one seeds and double world champions, Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong of China. Interestingly, the last time the pairs played was at the All England in 2020, Tabeling/ Piek took an unforgettable win. Following this, they came up just short against Koreans Seo Seung Jae/ Chae Yujung in the quarterfinal, so some familiar big names for them.
2019 European Games gold medallists, Marcus Ellis/ Lauren Smith of Team GB, will be eyeing up a key clash with French pair Thom Gicquel/ Delphine Delrue for the right to qualify from the group. While the French combination has been in hot form, Ellis/ Smith have a 5-0 head to head against them.
Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss/ Isabel Herttrich will have to produce a hattrick of top performances having been drawn with the reigning Olympic silver medallists, Malaysians Chan Peng Soon/ Goh Liu Ying, as well as the 2018 world bronze medalists Tang Chun Man/ Tse Ying Suet and the ones who defeated them to take the silver that same year, Wang Yi Lyu/ Huang Dong Ping.
Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen/ Alexandra Bøje will have to surpass the home favourites, Yuta Watanabe/ Arisa Higashino and the All England Champions, Praveen Jordan/ Melati Daeva Oktavianti in order to make a push for the knockout stages.
Day one of the badminton competition begins on 24 July 2021.