On November 6, the BWF updated the latest draw and withdrawal list of the 2023 Korea Badminton Masters, and the national badminton side Cheng Xing/Chen Fanghui withdrew, and only one group of players played in men's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles, and there were no players in women's singles and men's doubles, which is a pity.
The Chinese Taipei team is a major participant, with a total of 53 groups of players participating in 5 individual events, and more than 60 athletes participating in the competition. In addition, the host team South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia also sent a large but not very strong lineup.
This year's Korea Masters is held in Gwangju and is a BWF Super300 level event, with the exception of the women's doubles, all other individual events will be contested in qualifying tournaments. The tournament has a total prize fund of $210,000, with $15,750 for singles champions and $16,590 for doubles champions. With a one-hour difference in Korea time and Beijing time, the first three days of matches will start at 9:00 am (10:00 local time), starting with the quarter-finals and the second three days of matches starting at 10:00 (11:00 local time).
The following is the list of individual retirements and the latest draws.
Men's Singles Withdrawal - Substitute List: Yang Can (6) - Qin Yelu, Huang Zhiyong (3) - Zheng Jiaheng, Zhan Junwei - Panalin, Li Zijia (2) - Wang Baiwei.
The withdrawal of the three seeds in the lower half of the region makes the strength of the upper and lower halves somewhat unbalanced, and Lei Lanxi, who is in the lower half of the region, also has a good chance to achieve good results, and in the first round against the qualifiers, he may meet the Korean veteran Xu Yunxi.
Li Zijia suffered blistering on the soles of his feet due to consecutive competitions in Europe last month, and because he has not yet healed, the coach proposed to rest for another month. At the same time, Malaysian teenager Huang Zhiyong also withdrew from the competition, and the points with Li Zijia are currently on the verge of being shortlisted in the year-end finals, so the competition will be extremely fierce.
In addition, Li Zijia's withdrawal, which was originally going to be the first round of the showdown with Momota Kento, will not be staged, which is a pity for the audience.
Zhou Tiancheng, who just won the Haylou Open in the first half, will continue to compete, and teammates Wang Ziwei and Lin Junyi are also in the top half, and the biggest competitor should be Japan's men's singles.
Women's Singles main draw withdrawal - subs: Saena Kawakami (8) - Swabikova, Jisuna Lin Siyun, Chariha Solis.
The national feather women's singles did not play, and Kim Ga-eun became the top seed. Other highlights: 2022 World Junior Champion Tomoka Miyazaki and 2023 World Junior Champion Bichameng will both participate in this competition.
Men's Doubles main draw retirement - substitute list: Choi So-gyu/Kim Jae-hyun-Chen Jung-kuan/Chen Sheng-fat, Bernardo/Morada Kang Jianwei/Wu Xuanyi.
There are no players in the national feather men's doubles, the main reason is that there has been no echelon construction for a long time, except for the 5 pairs of combinations that participate everywhere, the rest of the players have too low points or even none, so they have more than enough strength to do it.
World champions Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae and Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Qi Lin are the top two seeds in the upper and lower halves respectively and will be strong contenders for the title.
Another highlight is that Indonesia's Sukamuyo will return to the field with young player Hidayat, and the original partner has declined due to multiple injuries, so he does not want to delay Sukamuyo's career and find another partner himself.
Women's Doubles main draw retirement list: Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (1), Kim Hye Lin/Lee Jung-hyun.
In the women's doubles, only Keng Shuliang/Zhang Chi will play as the No. 6 seeds, and judging from the draw table, the opponents who have played in several rounds have no record of fighting.
South Korea's Lee Bai combination and Kim Hye-rim/Lee Jung-hyun withdrew from the competition, and directly sent the newcomer combination Kim E-young/Kim So-jung to the top 8. Hosts South Korea and Japan will be strong contenders for the eventual title.
Mixed Doubles main draw retirement - subs: Cheng Xing/Chen Fanghui (7) - Yuta Eto/Ayumi Kamiyama, Sho Kumagai/Apricot Sato-Lu Zhen/Zheng Yupei.
Mixed doubles Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin will play in this tournament, but there are also Japan Masters and China Masters to follow, as the world No. 6 pair is still registering for the super300 level, I don't know how the coach plans it.
Jiang Zhenbang/Wei Yaxin are likely to meet Seo Seung Jae/Choi Yoo Hyun in the final.
Here is the schedule for the first round of the qualifying tournament and men's and women's doubles on November 7.