In the delayed men’s doubles draw held at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) headquarters here today, Aaron-Wooi Yik were drawn in Group A against top seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China, Ben Lane-Sean Vendy of Great Britain and Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura of Canada.
Wei Keng-Wang Chang are undoubtedly the biggest obstacle for the Malaysian pair as they have only beaten the Chinese twice in their previous eight meetings but will likely qualify for the quarterfinals as one of the top two teams in the group by beating Lane-Vendy and Adam-Nakura.
The Malaysians, ranked number five in the world, have a good record against Lane-Vendy, having won four out of their five encounters, and are likely to be favourites in their first encounter against the Canadians, ranked 32nd in the world.
Meanwhile, reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea will take on home pair, Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov, Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh-Kittinupong Kedren and Ondrej Kral-Adam Mendrek from the Czech Republic in Group B.
Third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India are in Group C with another home pair, Lucas Corvee-Ronan Labar, together with Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel of Germany.
Olympic gold medallists from Taiwan, Lee Yang-Wang Chi-Lin, are likely to have a tough time in their medal defence as they take on four other pairs, second-seeded Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, China’s Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi, Japanese duo Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi and American pair Vinson Chiu-Joshua Yuan in Group D.
The BWF confirmed yesterday that Corvee-Labar have been included in a revised 17-pair men’s doubles draw.
“This is a result of an award by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordering BWF to recommend to the International Olympic Committee that Corvee-Labar be included in the Olympic Games,” it said and conducted draws for only four events last Friday as a result.
Malaysian professional men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia received a favourable draw in Group G with world No 63 Pablo Abian of Spain and world No 72 Viren Nettasinghe of Sri Lanka.
Professional women’s singles shuttler Goh Jin Wei will face 12th seed Kim Ga Eun of South Korea and Johanita Scholtz of South Africa in Group H, with only the group champions advancing to the round of 16.
Meanwhile, national women’s doubles duo, Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, had a tough draw after finding themselves grouped with top seeds Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China, world No 6 pair Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara of Japan and world No 9 pair Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in Group D.
Luck was on the side of national mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei as they will be in Group D with second seeds Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping of China, Americans Vinson Chiu-Jennie Gai and Singapore’s Terry Hee Yong Kai-Jessica Tan.
The top two pairs of each group will qualify for the quarter-finals for all doubles events.