Dubai World Super Series Finals: Among Upsets, Sindhu Clears 1st Hurdle

Day 1 of BWF World Super Series Finals major upsets as some top seeds and Olympic Champion Carolin Marin failed to win their respective first matches, leaving them in a situation of must-win next two games to qualify for the semifinals. Only top two from each group of each event qualify for the semifinals. While two events saw two top seeds losing and one match saw Walk-over, PV Sindhu played the longest match of the day to upset 2nd seed Akane from Japan and cleared her first hurdle of challenge to get India the first Super Series title. Only two events have defending champions attempting consecutive title, and only one of them won their first match. Check Day 1 statistics and results of all events.

Day 1 Statistics

Longest Match: 1 hour 3 minutes Sindhu def Akane in Women’s Singles Group B.
Top Seeds Tumble: Men’s Doubles from Japan and Mixed Doubles from Korea.
Defending Champions: Mixed Doubles Champions from England won, while Women’s Doubles Champions from Champion lost their first match.
Old Champions: Lee Chong Wei lost the first match.
Walkover: Mathias/Carsten (Denmark) in Men’s Doubles Group A

Women’s Singles
Group A

Ji Hyun Sung def Ratchanok 21-19 21-12
Top seed Tai Tzu Ying def Bingjiao He 21-16 21-13

Group B
Placed in Group B together, PV Sindhu won her first match while Carolina Marin lost.

PV Sindhu def Akane 12-21 21-8 21-15 in 1 hour 3 minutes
Sun Yu def Carolina Marin 21-18 24-22 in 58 minutes.

Men’s Singles
Group A

Top seed Jorgensen def Yun Hu 21-8 21-5
Houwei Tian def Marc Zwiebler 21-15 21-7

Group B

2nd seed Son Wan Ho def LLee Chong Wei 21-10 21-16
Viktor Axelsen def NG Ka Long Angus 21-13 21-17

Men’s Doubles
Top seeds shocked in Group A, Mathias/Carsten give walkover in Group B
Group A

Mads/Mads (Denmark) def Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda 21-15 21-17
Marcus/Kevin (Indonesia) def Angga/Ricky (Indonesia) 21-18 17-21 21-14

Group B

Chai Biao/Hong Wei (China) def Junhui/Yuchen (China) 21-18 16-21 21-15
Junhui/Yuchen (China) get Walkover from Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Denmark)

Women’s Doubles
Group A

Top seed Misaki/Ayaka (Japan) def Naoko / Kurumi 21-19 21-19
Chang Ye Na / Lee So Hee (Korea) def Luo Ying / Luo Yu (China) 21-19 21-15

Group B

2nd seed Kamilla/Christinna Pedersen (Denmark) Vivian/Khe Wei (Malaysia) 21-7 21-17
Chen/Jia (China) def Jung Kyung / Shin Seung (Korea) 21-18 21-13

Mixed Doubles
Top seed face upset in Group A and 2nd seed in Group B
Group A

Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen (Denmark) def Top seed Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na (Korea) 21-14 21-23 21-16
Praveen Jordan / Debby Susanto (Indonesia) def Tontowi / Liliyana (Indonesia) 21-11 21-12

Group B

4th seed Zheng Siwei / Chen (China) def 2nd seed Lu Kai / Huang (China) 21-18 13-21 21-14
Chris/Gabrielle (England) def Kenta/Ayane (Japan) 21-15 21-9