The Sudirman Cup returns to Europe, and all European teams are ready to clash with the world’s best in this historic and prestigious event.
With 16 nations from all over the world competing to become champions, this will be the 17th edition of the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup, and this time, it will be taking place in Vantaa, Finland, between 26 September – 3 October. Here is what the European squads have to offer.
Finland (Group A: China, India, Thailand)
The hosts of this year’s Sudirman Cup have a tough challenge ahead. With some Asian powerhouses in their group, including the reigning champions who have already held the title 11 other times, Finland will need to stay on top of their game.
The country will be playing on home soil with a team that showcases a good mixture of well-established and experienced players such as Eetu Heino and Kalle Koljonen, and some of their youngest talents, including Joakim Oldorff and Nella Nyqvist, who both earned bronze in men’s singles and women’s singles respectively in the 2020 European Junior Badminton Championships.
Denmark (Group C: Canada, Indonesia, ROC)
This European Mixed Team Championships and European Men's and Women's Team Championships reigning champions are the European team that has been the most successful ever since the foundation of the Sudirman Cup—they have reached a total of nine semifinals and two finals.
For this edition, they will be sharing group with fellow Europeans from ROC, as well as Canada, and Indonesia, who got the title on the champioonships’ first edition back in 1989. Denmark is a strong country in team events and has some of the world’s best in their lineup, including this year’s Olympic singles champion Viktor Axelsen.
ROC (Group C: Canada, Denmark, Indonesia)
After winning a bronze medal in this year’s European Mixed Team Championships, ROC have not managed to make it out of the group stage when looking at the last three editions of the event. They will be looking to make it out of the group stage despite having tough opponents in their group once again.
ROC will be aiming at staying on top of their group with players such as Evgeniya Kosetksaya and the reigning European men’s doubles champions, Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov, as part of the team. 19-year-old Anastasiia Shapovalova, who won the 2020 European Junior Championships, will be the youngest in the team.
Germany (Group B: Chinese Taipei, Korea, Tahiti)
Just like ROC, Germany was the other team to claim the bronze medal at the 2021 European Mixed Team Championships in February.
German stars that attended Tokyo 2020 Isabel Herttrich, Yvonne Li, Kai Schäfer, Mark Lamsfuss, Marvin Seidel, will be leading their group in the fight for wins together with some other experienced players and young talents, such as 20-year-old Emma Moszczynski who has just recently won two medals in this year’s VICTOR Ukraine International—one of which is a gold in women’s doubles together with Stine Küspert, who will also be part of the team.
England (Group D: Egypt, Japan, Malaysia)
The last and only time that England came close to winning was in 2007, reaching the semifinals and thus becoming the second-best performing European team in the history of the Sudirman Cup. Could they repeat or even improve this result in this year’s championship?
Their solid team consists of no other than five Tokyo Olympians, and many of who have already attended the event—Chloe Birch, Marcus Ellis, Lauren Smith, and Abigail Holden who was 19 when attending two years ago and just a few weeks ago was the only European champion at 2021 Hellas International.