South Korea’s Son Wan Ho and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, on Sunday were named as the top seeds for the BWF World Championships 2017 to be held in Glasgow in August.
The seeding list was picked according to the world rankings in the first week of August. In the men’s singles, Son was placed over Malaysian ace Lee Chong Wei, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, China’s Shi Yuqi and defending champion Chen Long, among others. Five-time champion Lin Dan was placed seventh on the list.
As for the Indians in the competition, in-form Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and Sai Praneeth have been seeded No 8, No 13 and No 15 respectively.
Yamaguchi is placed above Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun and defending world and Olympic champion Carolina Marin. Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu-ying, who has had a terrific run over the past year, announced months ago that she wouldn’t be a part of the event.
India’s PV Sindhu is be the fourth seed in the women’s singles draw, followed by China’s Sun Yu and He Bingjiao. Saina Nehwal is placed 12th.
Former champion, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon is seeded No 8. Indonesia Open winners Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen lead the men’s doubles seeds. Australian Open champions Matsutomo and Takahashi are top-seeded in Women’s Doubles. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy are the other Indian representatives in the event, and are seeded 15th in the mixed doubles category.