BADMINTON Preview: Best in the world lined up for Malaysia Open

No. 1-ranked Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei (Photo: BWF)

An outstanding field has gathered for the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur (MAS), with the top three in the BWF World Rankings entered in all five divisions. The top seeds (with their world rankings):

Men’s Singles:
1. Kento Momota (JPN: 1) ~ 2018 silver medalist; 2019 All-England Open champ
2. Yuqi Shi (CHN: 2) ~ 2019 Swiss Open winner
3. Tien-Chen Chou (TPE: 3)

Men’s Doubles:
1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA: 1) ~ 2017 champions
2. Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN: 2)
3. Takeshi Kamura/Keogi Sonoda (JPN: 3) ~ Defending champions

Women’s Singles:
1. Tzu-Ying Tai (TPE: 1) ~ Three-time champion in 2013-17-18
2. Nozomi Okuhara (JPN: 3)
3. Yufei Chen (CHN: 2) ~ 2019 All-England Open winner

Women’s Doubles:
1. Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN: 1) ~ 2017 champions
2. Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN: 2) ~ Defending champions
3. Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagihara (JPN: 3)

Mixed Doubles:
1. Siwei Zhang/Yaqiong Huang (CHN: 1) ~ Defending champions
2. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN: 2) ~ 2018 silver medalists
3. Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Hagashino (JPN: 3) ~ 2018 bronze medalists

Also of note is Rio Olympic champ Long Chen (CHN) in the men’s Singles, where he is seeded fourth.

The Malaysian Open has a long history, with the inaugural edition in 1937, and held every year beginning in 1983. It is labeled as a Super 750 level tournament, which will pay $49,000-23,800-98,00 for the Singles medalists and smaller amounts down to 64th place. For Doubles, the payout is $51,800-24,000-9,800 and down to $700 for 33-64th. The total prize purise is $700,000.

Look for results here.