On Friday, the draw for the badminton event at the Paris Olympics took place, with the exception of the men’s doubles category. This was due to a mistake by the BWF which prevented the French pair Lucas Corvee / Ronan Labar from qualifying. News has it that their appeal was accepted, allowing 17 pairs instead of the originally planned 16 to compete in this event. The draw for this category will be conducted later.
In men’s singles, Indonesian stars Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting have reasons to be concerned as they find themselves in tough groups. The winner of this year’s All England Championship, is grouped with one of the strongest non-seeded player Lakshya Sen, along with Tokyo semifinalist Kevin Cordón and Belgium’s Julien Carraggi. Ginting, on the other hand, will face European silver medalist Toma Popov in his group. Also in this group is American Howard Shu, whose smile was less than sincere upon learning his opponents.
In the women’s competition, Group E appears to be the most intriguing, featuring Tai Tzu Ying, who is preparing for her final Olympics, and Thailand’s world champion, Ratchanok Intanon. Therefore, only one of these two legends will advance to the round of 16.
In the doubles events, only 16 pairs can qualify, setting up several interesting matchups even in the group stages. Given the format, there is room for some margin of error as two pairs from each group will progress to the quarterfinals.
In mixed doubles, the four groups are roughly evenly matched, but there is a particularly tough group for the women doubles. In Group A, alongside world number ones Cheng Qing Chen / Jia Yi Fan, are two-time world champions Matsumoto / Nagahara, defending champions Apriyani Rahayu and her new partner Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, as well as Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.
For the complete draw, you can view it HERE.