2016 All England Open Badminton Championships: Top 5 women contenders

All England Championships are scheduled to commence from 8th March 2016The 2016 All England Open Badminton Championships, the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament, is scheduled to take place at the Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham from 8th March 2016 to 13th March 2016. This would be first of BWF superseries events to take place in this calendar year and has a total purse of US $550,000.Badminton’s premier tournament, All England is a Badminton World Federation Superseries Premier event, its significance is proven with only four other events being given this status. We analyse the top 5 contenders in the women’s singles of the All England Open Championships: Note: Wang Yihan, PV Sindhu and Wang Shixian are the dark horses for this year’s prestigious tournament.

#5 Li Xuerui

Nationality: Chinese

Age: 25 years

BWF Singles Ranking: 3

All England Championship Seed: 3

Chinese international Li Xuerui will be hoping to win her 2nd All England World Championship singles title as she clinched the women’s singles title at the 2012 All England Championships by defeating her Chinese counterpart Wang Yihan 21-13, 21-19 in the finals.

On contrary to other contenders, Li Xuerui has already won her first title of this calendar year, she went on to win the 2016 German open Grand Prix singles title earlier this year. The 25-year old shuttler has an Olympic Gold as well in her list honours, she clinched the Gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics in an all-Chinese final against Wang Yihan.

She will have to face a tough challenge in Chinese Taipei international Hsu Ya-ching in the first round of the tournament.

#4 Nozomi Okuhara

Nationality: Japenese

Age: 20 years

BWF Singles Ranking: 8

All England Championship Seed: 8

Japenese international Nozomi Okuhara is the winner of the 2015 Japan Super Series in which she defeated her fellow Japenese counterpart Akane Yamaguchi 21-18, 21-12 in the finals. The 20-year old Nozomi also went on to win the 2015 BWF Super Series Masters Finals, Dubai by defeating Chinese international Wang Yihan 22-18, 21-12 in the final.

The number 8 seeded women’s singles player will face a tough competition in Thailand’s Nichaon Jindapon in the first round of the All England Badminton Championships.

#3 Ratchanok Intanon

Nationality: Thai

Age: 20 years

BWF Singles Ranking: 4

All England Championship Seed: 6

Thai international Ratchanok Intanon became the youngest player ever to clinch the BWF World Championships in 2013 at the age of 18 years, 6 months and 6 days by defeating Li Xuerui 22-20, 18–21, 21–14 in the final. In the same year, She became the youngest ever player to enter the finals of the All England Badminton Championships but unfortunately, lost to Denmark's Time Baun. She defeated India's Saina Nehwal in the semi-finals on her way to reach the finals.

Ratchanok went on to win the Indonesian Super Series Premier tournament and the 2015 Asia Badminton Championships in the last calendar year and will be looking continue her fine form into the 2016 All England Championships.

She would be taking on Chinese international Sun Yu in the first round and will be hoping to win the match comfortably to progress through the next round.

#2 Saina Nehwal

Nationality: Indian

Age: 25 years

BWF Singles Ranking: 2

All England Championship Seed: 2

Indian Badminton ace Saina Nehwal will be taking part in her 1st tournament of this calendar year at the All England Championships, a tournament in which she reached the final but unfortunately lost to Spanish international Carolina Marin last year. The 25-year old Indian shuttler will be looking to start this calendar on a positive note and carry the momentum to the mega event, the Rio Olympics which is scheduled to take place in the month of August later this year.

Saina became the first Indian women shuttler to reach the final of the All England Championships last year, a feat that she would like to better this time around. She also became the first Indian shuttler to reach the top of the BWF women’s singles ranking last year, after she clinched the India Open BWF Super Series by beating Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon.

She would be facing Canada’s Michele Li in the first round of the All England Championships and would be hoping for a comfortable passage to the second round against the Canadian.

#1 Carolina Marin

Nationality: Spanish

Age: 22 years

BWF Singles Ranking: 1

All England Championship Seed: 1

Spanish international Carolina Marin will look to defend her singles title at the upcoming All England Open Badminton Championships exactly a year after she claimed her first All England title by defeating Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal in the final of the 2015 edition.

It has been an incredible journey so far for the 22-year old Spanish rising star, in 2013, she became the first Spanish badminton player to win a Grand Prix Gold title after winning the Gold at the 2013 London Grand Prix. A year later, in 2014, she overcame all odds to win the BWF World Championships by defeating Chinese international Li Xuerui 17–21, 21–17, 21–18 in the final and thus became the youngest European Champion ever in the history of the game.

The Spaniard won her second straight singles title at the 2015 BWF World Championships by defeating Indian international Saina Nehwal in yet another final. She will be facing South Korea’s Bae Yeon – Ju in the first round of the 2016 All England Championships and would be hoping to get through to the second round with a comfortable win.

Edited by Staff Editor