The second stop of the BWF European season, the French Open, officially started filming on the 5th. As the penultimate high-level event of the Paris Olympic points tournament, the French Open attracts many top players. With less than five months to go before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games open, the event offers athletes the opportunity to experience the venues of the Paris Olympics in advance, according to the official Olympic website.
The Chinese badminton team, which won 3 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes at the French Open last year, will do its best to participate in the competition. In the men's singles, Li Shifeng, who finished second in the last competition, is in the top half of the bracket with teammate Weng Hongyang, and the main opponents are the world's "first brother" Viktor Axelsen, Thailand's Kunlavut and Indonesia's No. 5 seed Ginting. Shi Yuqi and Lu Guangzu are in the bottom half of the zone, and the main opponents are Antonsen and Naraoka Kodai.
The women's singles draw is also full of celebrities: An Xiying, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, Dai Ziying and others are all here. The Chinese team has 6 players in the women's singles field, and Chen Yufei will play as the defending champion, and whether she can achieve two consecutive championships in the tournament surrounded by strong opponents has become a major attraction. In addition to Chen Yufei, who has basically locked a ticket to the Paris Olympics, He Bingjiao, Han Yue, and Wang Zhiyi will compete for the remaining women's singles quota for the Paris Olympics.
China's Men's Doubles draw this time was drawn, and the tournament's No. 2 seeds Leung Wai Hang and Wang Chang were placed in the bottom half, while the main competitors - India's Rankireddy Shetty and South Korea's Seo Seung-jae Kang Min-hyuk were in the top half. Men's Doubles world No. 1 Killedi Shetty will be the favourite, according to India Outlook, "and this is a good opportunity for India's top players to adapt to the badminton venues at the Paris Olympics in advance".
China's Women's Doubles has five pairs, with top seeds Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in the same half as Japan's Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota and Korea's Kim So-young and Kong Hee-yong. Another Chinese pair, reigning women's doubles champions Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, could face Korea's Baek Ha Na Lee So-hee and Japan's Nami Matsuyama and Chiyo Shida. In Mixed Doubles, top seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong are expected to face two old rivals: Thailand's Dechapol Sasiree and South Korea's Seo Seung Jae and Choi Yoo Hyun. In the lower half, Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping, defending champions Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin will be the main opponents of Japan's Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino.
The French Open is also a warm-up for the All England Open, which starts on the 12th. The All England Open is one of the highest-level tournaments of the European season, with the biggest names from all over the world in action. (Xu Yunfeng).