Lakshya Sen in action© AFP
India's top shuttlers including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have withdrawn from the upcoming BWF Japan Open, scheduled to commence on August 24. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday confirmed that defending champion Axelsen, fresh from winning his second Olympic Games gold medal, will be among the star attractions in the tournament amid massive pull outs from the tournament that will be first major badminton event after the conclusion of Paris Olympics on Sunday.
Axelsen is one of three defending champions who have entered the tournament – the others are women's doubles duo Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong and mixed doubles pair Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino.
The other two defending champions: An Se Young and Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin – who also won the Olympic gold recently – will skip the Japan Open.
Lakshya came agonisingly close to winning the bronze medal for India in the Paris Olympics but he came down fighting against Axelsen to miss out the podium finish in the debut quadrennial event.
Apart from the Indian shuttlers, the other prominent withdrawls include Olympic champions Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Chen Yu Fei, and Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
While there have been a number of high-profile withdrawals, the field in all categories has plenty of depth. Shi Yu Qi, Jonatan Christie, Anders Antonsen, Kodai Naraoka and Kunlavut Vitidsarn in men's singles, and Tai Tzu Ying, Akane Yamaguchi, Wang Zhi Yi and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in women's singles are expected to be seen in action.
In men's doubles, world champions Seo Seung Jae/Kang Min Hyuk will be looking for their first Japan Open title, while in women's doubles, local hopefuls Chiharu Shida/Nami Matsuyama and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara will attempt to break the run of Korean success from 2019.
Olympic bronze medallists Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino will look to defend their title, with the field likely to see world champions Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung, Olympic silver medallists Kim Won Ho/Jeong Na Eun and Indonesia Open winners Jiang Zheng Bang/Wei Ya Xin.
Withdrawals from Japan Open 2024-
Men's Singles: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, Wang Po-Wei, Sameer Verma, Sankar Muthusamy, Oleksii Titov, Riku Hatano, Garret Tan.
Women's Singles: An Se Young, Pusarla V Sindhu, Chen Yu Fei, He Bing Jiao, Carolina Marin, Eliana Zhang, Asuka Takahashi.
Men's Doubles: Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Arif Junaidi/Roy King Yap, Sai Pratheek/Krishna Prasad Garaga, Julien Maio/William Villeger, Ayush Pattanayak/Abinash Mohanty, Yuichi Shimogami/Takumi Nomura, Mahiro Kaneko/Shunya Ota, William Kryger Boe/Christian Faust Kjaer, Lin Yu Chieh/Chen Zhi Ray, Youcef Sabri Medel/Koceila Mammeri.
Women's Doubles: Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti; Rawinda Prajongjai/Jongkolphan Kititharakul; Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela; Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota; Setyana Mapasa/Angela Yu; Moa Sjoo/Tilda Sjoo; Wen Yu Zhang/Eliana Zhang; Sikki Reddy/Gadde Ruthvika Shivani.
Mixed Doubles: Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong; Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping; Praveen Jordan/Serena Kani; Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Boje; Julien Maio/Lea Palermo; Oleksii Titov/Yevheniia Kantemeyr; Yuichi Shimogami/Sayaka Hobara; Kevin Lee/Eliana Zhang; Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari; Roy King Yap/Valeree Siow; Chen Zhi Ray/Yang Ching Tun; Koceila Mammeri/Tanina Violette Mammeri.
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