Dongguan: After the group stage of the 2015 Sudirman Cup has come to a completion on Wednesday, the top two teams of each group were going into the knockout phase that would begin on May 14.
According to the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) rankings taken as of May 7th, China and Japan were both ranked as the top and second seeds. Thus, they were both separated into two different half. While Malaysia and Korea were trying to avoid each other in the Sudirman Cup quarter-finals (after Malaysia upset Korea 3-2 at the group stage on Sunday), they have been drawn together again and will clash with each other in the quarter-finals that will be held on Thursday. Korea finished second in Group 1D after having little trouble defeating India 4-1 on Wednesday.
Malaysia’s technical director Morten Frost was not thrilled with the draw, but remained positive the Malaysian team could pull through on Thursday’s challenge.
“This is obviously a very difficult draw. We have only a 25% chance of playing Korea again in the quarter-finals, and we were given that tough chance. However, I am confident our players would play their best and would rise to the occasion,” said Frost.
Malaysia will play against South Korea and defending champion China will face Germany in Dongguan, on Thursday, while Japan will play Denmark and Taiwan will take on Indonesia on Friday.
