Too Close to Call – Women’s Doubles Preview
Unlike the other four categories, the lack of overwhelming favourites in Women’s Doubles is its most striking feature at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2018.
· DEV SUKUMAR
While Kento Momota, Tai Tzu Ying, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong have dominated their respective categories, the honours in Women’s Doubles have been more evenly shared. Indeed, so close has the competition been that one of the nominees for the Female Player of the Year award – Japan’s Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota – did not even qualify to the season finale, having narrowly lost out on points to compatriots Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi.
Fukushima/Hirota won six titles overall – including the Badminton Asia Championships – to take the No.1 spot in the BWF World Rankings, but they were second in the HSBC Race To Guangzhou Rankings and missed out on a place, as the two Japanese spots went to Matsutomo/Takahashi and world champions Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara.
The two Japanese pairs are at the head of Group A and Group B. Matsutomo/Takahashi will have to deal with Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia), Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan and Du Yue/Li Yinhui (both China) in Group A, while Matsumoto/Nagahara have Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai (Thailand), Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan (Korea) and Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva (Bulgaria) in Group B.