Kuala Lumpur: The 2018 China Open draw gave World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen a familiar foe as he could meet Lin Dan in the second round, while Chen Long looked set to take on the winner between Axelsen and Lin in the quarter-finals.
However, the World No. 15 Lin Dan would have to defeat World No. 10 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the opener before earning a chance to meet Axelsen. Playing against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting was no easy task since the Indonesian player has been in red hot form recently as he defeated both reigning World Champion Kento Momota and Rio Olympic champion Chen Long at the Asian Games two weeks ago.
In the bottom half, No. 3 seed Kento Momota could hardly have asked for a trickier start with a first-round clash with Brice Leverdez of France, who have been known as a giant killer because he usually played extremely well in early rounds of tournament.
Meanwhile, defending champions Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia have been drawn in the top half with a potential clash against Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia in the quarter-finals. Goh/Tan would need to work their way past Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty in the opener and probably No. 7 seeds Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko of Japan before meeting Gideon/Sukamuljo.
The women’s draw handed Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia a tough opener as she was set to face defending champion Akane Yamaguchi in the first round.
World No. 1 women’s singles player Tai Tzu Ying could be facing off No. 6 seed Carolina Marin of Spain in the quarter-finals, and No. 4 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the semi-final.
