BWF tournaments Jan 2024

[Sin Hombre]

4 months to go for Olympics cutoff and every tournament gets important now.

Jan has 4 BWF World Tour events
Malaysia Open - Super 1000
India Open - Super 750
Indonesia Masters - Super 500
Thailand Masters - Super 300

Draws are out for the first two tournaments.

Malaysia draw
MS - Srikanth vs Jonatan Christie (6), Lakshya vs Weng Hong Yang, HSP (8) vs Antonsen
WS - no representation
MD - Satwik/Chirag (2) vs Fikri/Maulana - the Indonesian pair is WR #9 and at their career best so this is a tough draw
WD - Tanisha/Ashwini vs Corbett/Lee (american junior pair who won a junior WC silver). Treesa/Gayatri are injured again
XD - no representation

India draw
MS - HSP (8) vs Chou-Tien Chen vs Lakshya/Priyanshu, Srikanth vs Lee Yu
WS - no representation
MD - Satwik/Chirag (2) vs Lee/Lee
WD - Tanisha/Ashwini vs Kititharakul/Prajongjai ; Treesa/Gayatri vs Matsuyama/Shida (4)
XD - no representation

Honestly pretty good draws for Lakshya, Srikanth and Tanisha/Ashwini. There are no easy matches at this level but they all have chances to go deep one of the two weeks which would go a long way towards Olympic qualification.

[Sin Hombre]

Decent start in Malaysia with both Srikanth and Tanisha/Ashwini winning their opening rounds. We had 3 players/teams get into the main draw with withdrawals but unsurprisingly, they all lost.

Prannoy, Lakshya and SatChi play their first rounds today. Hoping for at least 2 wins here.

[Sin Hombre]

Prannoy and Lakshya both lost. Lakshya has completely fallen off in the Olympic year which is unfortunate. I think 8th first round exit in a row - this is as bad as RamK from last year.

HSP has apparently changed rackets which seems like a strange thing to do given he has had his best couple of years recently.

[Sin Hombre]

Tanisha and Ashwini beat WR #9 and 7th seeded Japanese pair to reach the quarters . This is very exciting that our pair is carrying their great form from smaller tournaments at the end of 2023 into a Super 1000 series.

They have another Japanese pair (WR #15) in the quarters, who beat #3 Korean pair in the last 16.

As per my calc, they will also be the new India #1 in WD in next week's rankings and likely enter the top-16 in the Race to Paris.

[sameerph]

And SatChi beat a French pair easily in second round. Srikanth lost in straight games though against 20th ranked Angus.

So, we have only 2 doubles pairs standing in the QF. SatChi against 23rd ranked Chinese pair and Tanisha-Ashwini against 15th ranked Japanese whom they lost to in close final in Syed Modi international.

[rajitghosh]

It is ironical that in a Super 1000 event the only Indian quarter finalists are in doubles. Shows how much singles has regressed and doubles has progressed.

[arjun2761]

And SatChi beat a French pair easily in second round. Srikanth lost in straight games though against 20th ranked Angus.

So, we have only 2 doubles pairs standing in the QF. SatChi against 23rd ranked Chinese pair and Tanisha-Ashwini against 15th ranked Japanese whom they lost to in close final in Syed Modi international.

SatChi win easily against the Chinese pair in straight games and make the SFs. Up against WR #3 Koreans Kang and Seo in the semis.
https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/spor ... F43&draw=3

Tanisha-Ashwini fall to the Japanese pair in straight games in the QF.

[Sin Hombre]

SatChi won in straights again to set up a finals with #1 Chinese pair. Good start to a very important Olympic year for them.

Antonsen who beat Prannoy in Round 1 has reached the finals. I think HSP was a bit unlucky to run into a hot opponent coming back after an injury break.

4 Chinese, 2 Koreans, 1 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Indian, 1 Danish in the finals of the first 1000 event of the year.

[arjun2761]

Good luck to SatChi to win the title here in a battle of WRs 1 and 2! Clearly, they are are main (or perhaps only) medal hope in the Olympics in badminton for India.

[prasen9]

Pretty much only.

[sameerph]

SatChi lost 21-9 18-21 17-21. They were up 10-4 at one stage in third game but world #1 Chinese team came back strongly.

[Sin Hombre]

Antonsen won the MS so definitely unfortunate for Prannoy.

I wouldn't count out HSP, his big tournament performances in the last two years have been stellar. He needs to be a top-8 seed going into Paris though so will need to make at least one deep run this month. Hopefully this week at home.

[Sin Hombre]

Another first round loss for Lakshya (8th in a row), this time to Priyanshu who next plays HSP. Prannoy is now the highest seed in this section with Axelsen's withdrawal so hopefully the winner of Priyanshu/HSP goes deep.

Treesa/Gayatri gave a good fight but lost to WR #4 pair. This is getting too late for them to qualify imo, even though they likely have the better potential to cause an upset compared to Tanisha/Ashwini who play to their ranking consistently (and are steadily progressing upwards as a result). I hope Tanisha/Ashwini can make the most of their draw and go deep - they have slight chances of finishing as a top-8 seed for the Olympics but that needs a final run in a tournament like this.

[Sin Hombre]

Unfortunately Tanisha and Ashwini lost in the first round too.

Priyanshu gave a good fight but lost to HSP. HSP and SatChi are our only 2 quarterfinalists but will play lower ranked opponents so hopefully both make it to the last 4.

[Sin Hombre]

Both made it to the last 4 so that's good. Next up is similarly ranked Shi Yuqi for HSP and #4 Malaysian pair for SatChi. Both matches are going to be close.