Kuala Lumpur: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships is the most prestigious tournament in badminton besides the Olympic Games, with players from across the globe competing to make their mark in this illustrious competition.
This year, the BWF World Championships will be held from August 21 to August 27 at Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.
BWF released the final ranking list on 27 April 2017 that showed the eligibility for 64 places in Men’s Singles; 48 places in Women’s Singles; and 48 pairs in each of the three doubles categories.
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei has played 9 tournaments in the qualifying period so far, accumulating 81,703 points, ahead of Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, who has played 14 tournaments for 71,814 points. China’s Shi Yuqi was in fifth place with 64,407 points, while Tian Houwei in the seventh place followed by Lin Dan in the eighth place with 60,458 points.
Due to his limited participation at international tournaments since winning the gold in Rio, reigning World Champion Chen Long was ranked in ninth place, and failed to qualify for the World Championship on merit.
However, there are at least two ways Chen Long could still make the World Championships, he could either substitute one of the three Chinese players that ranked higher than him, or to have BWF offer him a wild card.
In women’s competition, Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying who has won five straight Superseries titles since lifting the Hong Kong Open last November, topped the list with 93,721 points from 16 tournaments, ahead of Spain’s Carolina Marin who earned 80,714 points from 14 tournaments, and India’s P.V. Sindhu who scored 74,749 points from 14 tournaments.
