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In the absence of the in-form World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, who has opted to play at the World University Games, the BWF World Championships 2017 has opened up opportunities for everyone else in the draw. The 64-player field is packed with former champions, young challengers and some amazing talent, each of whom has come with one dream in their eyes - winning the much-coveted World Championships title.
It is hard to pick just one player as the potential champion from this extremely competitive draw.
Also read: World Badminton Championships 2017: Top 5 men's singles contenders
As the Championships kicks off on August 21, here’s a list of five women’s singles shuttlers who could set the stage on fire in the next one week:
Carolina Marin
The two-time defending champion went titleless on the BWF circuit since her monumental win at the 2016 Rio Olympics one year ago. The only time she could lift a trophy in 2017 was when she defended her European Championships gold medal.
Niggling injuries deprived her of a prized opportunity of repeating her Olympics heroics in the last one year.
Right when she started showing some sparks by reaching three consecutive Superseries finals in India, Malaysia and Singapore, she failed to back them up by slumping to first round defeats at the Indonesia Open and the Australian Open.
Now after an intensive two-month training block, a rejuvenated Marin is raring to go and has even claimed that she is in better shape than what she was at Rio. The third seed will have to prove that when she potentially faces the Indonesia Open champion Sayaka Sato and the Australian Open champion Nozomi Okuhara in the third round and quarter-finals respectively.
If she is able to display her fiery pace and pass these two tests with flying colours, it will be a cause of worry for anyone else in the draw.
Saina Nehwal
In the build-up to the 2017 World Championships, while all eyes have been firmly fixed on the Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu, the 2015 World Championships runner-up Saina Nehwal has mostly been in the shadows.
It hasn’t been the best of years for Saina. Since her knee surgery last September, the former World No. 1 has triumphed only at the Malaysia Masters in January. Inconsistency and a lack of fitness have seen her spiralling into quite a few shocking early exits from the elite tournaments. She has not progressed past the quarter-finals in any Superseries event this year and is currently tottering at the World No. 16 ranking.
But being away from the spotlight sometimes does wonders. With the low ranking, she has found herself a 12th seeding which has very much made her a dark horse for this tournament.
There has never been any doubt about her passion or hunger for the sport. She has been one of the most mentally strong shuttlers on the Tour.
If she can get the better of the second seed Sung Ji Hyun in the third round, whom she did beat at the Australian Open in June, she can boost her confidence level.
PV Sindhu
In the past four years, PV Sindhu has demonstrated multiple times that she is a big match player. As a teenager, she clinched back-to-back bronze medals from the World Championships in 2013 and 2014 even when she was just a fledgling talent.
At Rio, she pushed aside a few months of struggle on the Tour to create history and bring home the Olympic silver.
Naturally the expectations have risen and she too has delivered since then by grabbing three titles in the past one year.
Thus this time, the roles have reversed. Being the fourth seed, PV Sindhu is now very much the hunted instead of the hunter that she was in the previous few editions.
It’s not the bronze she is aiming for anymore, it’s the gold she has set her eyes upon. With her higher targets, the perils too are more.
Fifth seed Sun Yu could pose a threat in the quarter-finals, especially because the Chinese has a 4-3 head-to-head record over the Indian and won their most recent showdown at the 2016 Dubai World Superseries Finals.
This will be a stern test of Sindhu’s improved game and mentality. If she can get past this hurdle, she could well be on the way to bettering the colour of her medal this time.
Akane Yamaguchi
The World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi is the top seed in the absence of the top-ranked Tai Tzu Ying. But she does not enjoy any comfort being the head of the draw.
Right from her second round, she has to be at her flawless best for she can meet the talented Line Kjaersfeldt in her opener and then can come face-to-face with the world junior champion Chen Yufei.
One round further, the 2013 world champion Ratchanok Intanon will be waiting for the 20-year-old.
Her path to a maiden world crown is indeed littered with dangers at every corner. But the Japanese, who has been a teenage prodigy, has been able to establish herself as a force to reckon with in the past few months.
Post-Rio Olympics, she tasted back-to-back Superseries glory at the Korea Open and the Denmark Open. This year, she has won the German Open Grand Prix Gold, besides having runner-up appearances at the Badminton Asia Championships and the Australian Open.
She has beaten both Chen Yufei and Ratchanok Intanon in those two tournaments. If she can summon the same courage and conviction, there is no reason why she cannot produce those same results and get herself a medal.
Nozomi Okuhara
Nozomi Okuhara knows the art of peaking at the right time. A shoulder injury had pinned the Japanese down towards the end of the 2016 season and she could not back up the bronze she won at the Rio Olympics.
Few months on, she is now very much looking as the lethal player who won the World Superseries Finals in 2015 and the All England Championships in 2016.
She gave a strong testimony to that when she annihilated Carolina Marin en route to winning the Australian Open Superseries this June. Riding high on that success, the seventh seed is coming into this premier global event as one of the top contenders.
After a third round meeting with her talented compatriot Aya Ohori, who won the US Open, she has a chance of squaring off against none other than Marin again.
The outcome of that blockbuster match, should it happen, will be a big indicator of the fortunes of either player in this World Championships.
